This Is Our Fairytale
by akmarakmal
Summary: As a thousand years old Original, Elijah had thought that there's not much of anything that could rattle him and all of his suit-and-tie-wisdom anymore. That is until he woke up next to a naked Caroline Forbes, sleeping soundly in his arm.
1. Chapter 1

**A/N:** Hi. This is my first story here and although I love Klaroline and Steroline (I'm kind of a ship-whore when it comes to Caroline Forbes, I ship her with everything and anything!) I decided to try writing something for one of my favorite crackship of all time, Carlijah. I think Elijah and Caroline would be amazing together and this is my tryout of seeing how that would be like if it those two were to happen. I hope you guys enjoy it and do leave me a review so I could improve my writings better and the story itself. English is not my first language so do bear with me if there's grammar mistake or anything.

 **Pairing:** Caroline/Elijah

 **Summary:** Elijah must admit, of all the years he had woken up from a sleep since the day he became a vampire, he had thought that there was nothing in this world that could ever surprises him anymore. That's what Elijah thinks eternity is, a sense of inability to be surprise by the world. Only of course, with eternity comes the knowledge of how naïve for him to think of such thing. The realization of it hit him hard right to the core of his unbeaten heart when he look down at the naked Caroline Forbes sleeping in his arm.

 _This Is Our Fairytale_

 **PROLOGUE**

 **ELIJAH** knew that going on a trip was not a good idea, not when his mother, father and two scornful brothers are back from the dead. It was an awful idea if you asked him but after everything his mother had made him go through these past few days, Elijah feels that he deserve this, that for a few days, he could escape New Orleans and hope no one died whistle his absence. It wasn't as if he was going on a trip for fun – he had business, stocks, company and partners to tend to – this wasn't just a trip, it's a necessity. Contrary to popular believes, the Originals does not acquired all of their wealth through compulsions, threatening people's life or killing them, they _work_ for it, at least he works for it. To keep and managed their wealth always requires Elijah to travel once in a while hence why he would go out of town for a certain amount of time. Only this time, he picked a particularly not a good time for such trip.

Elijah expected Klaus to be furious of his request, to throw a tantrum and dagger threats here and there, but imagine his surprise when his younger brother agreed to it without much fuss. It almost stopped Elijah's unbeaten heart when Klaus said that Elijah needed a good time-out vacation away from all of their family dramas. It was sort of his way of saying he is sorry for not coming after Elijah sooner. In that moment, Elijah knew that all the pain he'd went through during his time with Klaus was worth it, that all of the sacrifices he made was not for nothing. Deep down that complicated twist of a man, his little brother still actually do have a heart. Thank God for that!

Now Elijah is traveling around – Chicago, Nashville, DC – anywhere his business takes him. Somewhere along the way, the Original ends up in a town near Mystic Falls, somewhere close to Whitmore College. Elijah own a bar there and though he knew there was a high chance he might see someone from Mystic Falls, he'd never thought that person would be the infamous blonde baby vampire, Caroline Forbes, whom ex-boyfriend had come to New Orleans once in seek of retaliation towards one of Niklaus' many transgression. She was sitting at the bar, drinking her sorrows away with each tequila shot she downed as if determined to get so drunk, she would forget her own name. He wouldn't blame the blonde if that was her purpose. If he was still living in Mystic Falls, he would probably turn to alcohol too, in hopes of forgetting it all. He was tempted to do so right now.

Though the blonde and Elijah aren't technically friends – only once did he have the pleasure of working with her to save Niklaus – he knows she's the light of Mystic Falls and its people. Elena, the Bennet witch, the Salvatore brothers and even his own brother would took a stake through their heart just to keep the light in her shines brightly as it usually does. However tonight, that light tonight of hers is nowhere to be seen. It seems that life had managed to beat even the sunny, sunshine, Caroline Forbes. The girl he acutely remember was no longer there, just a vessel of her looking so gloom and doom with a drink in hand and more lining up right in front of her, ready to be devour. This wasn't the Caroline Forbes everyone love and adore, this is the girl who had been defeated by the evils of the world and somehow that disturbs Elijah more than it should.

Against all of his better judgment, Elijah finds himself walking towards her and ordering a glass of scotch from the bartender that had come to know him after years of working there.

"May I?" The Original asked, as he stood beside an empty stool next to Caroline.

The blonde looked up. He could see the shock in her eyes and maybe a little bit of fear but due to the large amount of alcohol she had induced – Elijah could smell it all on her – she just shrugged and took another gulp of her drink.

The older Mikaelson unbutton his suit and slide gracefully onto the stool. Once his drink arrived, Caroline finally spoke up. "What brings the noble Mikaelson here in my presence?"

"Business." Elijah answered while he took a sip of his drink.

"Of course." The blonde said as if she was annoyed with herself for thinking he was there for anything else.

Elijah took a moment to savor the taste of alcohol in his mouth before turning his attention back to the blonde beauty next to him. "And what of you, Miss Forbes? I would've thought that you'd be with the Salvatore brothers or Elena and the witch."

Caroline flinched at his words. A silent minute passed before she swallowed another round of alcohol. Once she put the third glass down, her blue eyes finds his brown one and he saw misery in her. "Bonnie's dead, so is Damon, Stefan left without saying goodbye and Mystic Falls has been cleansed out of magic which means I can't go home. That's why I'm here."

Elijah's face soften and his eyes glimmer with sympathy. "I am truly sorry for your loss, Miss Forbes." He might not be Damon Salvatore's biggest fan nor does he care that much about the Bennet witch and the ripper his brother was so obsessed with, but Elijah do however know how much they meant to the baby vampire and losing them, the people which she had call her family and her home at the same time must be hell for her. He can relate to that.

"Yeah, well, life's a bitch." She simply said.

"It is indeed." Elijah down the rest of his drink as a salute to what Caroline said and ordered another one.

Once Caroline finished another drink, she turned to look at Elijah, her eyes carefully stare at him, as if she was trying to see through him. "There's something different about you." The blonde quieted down for a while before her eyes glimmer in realization. "You're…"

"Broken?" Elijah offered.

Caroline nodded. "Yes."

"It takes one broken soul to recognize another."

"Yes it does," the blonde agrees and silently went back to her drinks.

The night certainly didn't turn out the way she had expected it to but Elijah's presence was a welcome distraction from all the weight burdening on her shoulders. Losing home, losing Stefan, Bonnie and even Damon took a toll on her that she hadn't expected. Naturally, losing Bonnie gives her an endless pool of grief and Stefan leaving would affect her but it shouldn't drive her crazy, obsessing over where he is and why he's not answering any of her calls. And then there's the part of losing Damon that somehow leave a gaping wound on her heart. All of that pain, all that agony came rushing through her all at once, catching the blonde completely off guard.

Caroline was not used to this gripping emotions rushing through her like a freaking thunderstorm, especially now that she no longer has the comfort of her home to help her cope with the grief. Home is where the heart is and Caroline's heart is in Mystic Falls where, despite everything, still manage to make her feel safe and sound.

Looking at Elijah from the corner of her eyes, Caroline couldn't help but to wonder about a certain Original hybrid who once offered her the world. He must still be in New Orleans, undoubtedly enjoying his new life as a father. The universe has some sick humor, Caroline has decided. Out of all the people that deserve to have a miracle, a family and a second chance, the universe chooses Klaus, the murderous hybrid and Hayley, the backstabbing were-slut as the recipients of that miracle. She would have laugh at the universe's joke if it didn't remind her of all the things she had lost the moment Katherine smothered her with a pillow.

"He is well." Elijah suddenly spoke up, cutting off the blonde's chain of thoughts.

"I don't care," Caroline answered without looking at him, already knowing who Elijah's talking about.

"Yes you do," Elijah's tone told Caroline she should know better than to lie to Elijah Mikaelson, the Original big brother.

"It doesn't matter. We're done."

"But are you?" Elijah prompted, tilting his head a bit to look at Caroline.

"Yes, we are. I may be a vampire but I'm not a homewrecker. I will never let myself ruin a child's chance at having a functional family." Her being there with Klaus would just be an obstacle for Hayley and him to be together and Caroline is not going to do that. She lived most of her life not having a real dad to lean on – when he came back, he tortured her and when their relationship was starting to work, he died – and a mother who was always so busy with work to give any attention towards her, she will not let Klaus' child suffer the same fate as her. Caroline knows what a broken family does to a child and she will not let it happen to any other child if she can help it.

Elijah wanted to tell Caroline that it doesn't matter, that Hope is not with Klaus and Klaus is certainly not with Hayley and their family is already too dysfunctional to be functional again but it was not his story to be told, it was Klaus' so he kept his mouth shut. Deep inside, he understood what Caroline felt. He felt it too, whenever he stood between Klaus and Hayley. It is as if he's intruding on what could've been Hope's happy family. Maybe Klaus didn't feel a thing for Hayley but he knew that if his brother open up his heart, he would be able to learn to love the girl. She did carry his daughter. Klaus might be a monster but he is not an animal, he knows family when he sees one.

"It seems that I had been mistaken to overlook you, Miss Forbes. You are a rare thing, even among humans. That heart of yours, that humanity and kindness even to your enemy, is one of the rarest thing about life that always seems to appall me. I truly understand why your friends and the Salvatore brothers would do anything to protect you and why my brother seek your love. You are a ray of sunshine in this world of darkness." The older Mikaelson spoke, his eyes never leave Caroline.

When the young girl turned to look at Elijah, her watery eyes made Elijah's feelings swirled in a way it had never been before.

"Thank you for saying that," Caroline said. For the first time in many years, she was truly grateful. That's exactly what she needed to hear, that at least one person in this world acknowledge her persistence to keep her acts together, to stand by her moral codes and not give into the temptation of darkness. She needed to hear that her effort of being good, of keeping her humanity in tact is not a futile effort that would go to waste. Elijah seemed to give her just that and more.

The Original vampire is giving Caroline hope again, hope that the world is not truly lost, that darkness is not what is left for her in the future.

This is why she and Klaus would never work, because Klaus bath in the allure of darkness, calling for her to give into the temptation of it but at the same time, he expect her light to keep shinning even in there. Klaus was telling her that there is truly no good and evil, there's just a blurry lines that they all live in. As much as Caroline knew that is true, she needs to have hope that life won't always be this blurry, that eternity won't always be a constant fight.

Caroline Forbes needs hope that there's a chance of light in this sea of eternal darkness.

Elijah was caught off guard by the emotions behind those simple words. It seemed that Caroline Forbes was indeed, broken but his words had managed to somehow fix her. He had been trying to fix his family, his _life_ for what feels like an eternity and not once did he managed to do so. Things would just keep going downfall and worst for him but now, just when he thought there was no more hope for himself, he sees Caroline and unintentionally help fixing her and hope blooms inside of his heart.

Life certainly have a funny way of working things around, doesn't it?

The two of them stared into each other's eyes for a while, both experiencing feelings that words could never explain, when suddenly Caroline's phone went off, effectively ending the moment between the two of them.

The blonde vampire quickly took out her phone from her jean's front pocket to answer the call while Elijah politely turn away to give Caroline a sense of privacy even though they both knew Elijah could perfectly hear every words that were being said.

"What's wrong, Ric?"

"Have you talked to Elena lately?" The older man voice was lace with worry. Lately his fatherly instinct had been up and kicking, more so than usual – it was probably one of the side effect of vampire's enhance emotions – which is why Alaric is constantly worrying over Elena's weird denial-land behavior, Jeremy's refusal to leave Mystic Falls – or Tyler's house that now belongs to Matt – and Caroline's hardcore determination to single handedly safe the town and refusal to go back to Whitmore. It is honestly a sweet gesture, especially since Caroline had always been lack off father figure but if Alaric keeps worrying about them, she's afraid he might die of a constant concern.

"No, I haven't talk to Elena. Why?"

"It's probably nothing but there's been reports of vampire activities around the town's borders and since I know you have your urge perfectly controlled, I'm afraid that it's Elena that's been feeding off people. She's in a bad place right now, her emotions must be everywhere. I wouldn't hold it against her if she's went a little bit out of control."

"I'll look into it."

"Thanks, Caroline. I'll update you on Stefan's finding when he calls." Alaric knew how much the blonde had been worrying about Stefan and wondering why the younger Salvatore hadn't been answering her calls. She's hurt, truly by him for leaving her and Caroline's way of dealing with it is focusing on saving the town. Alaric hopes that his constant information of the whereabouts of Stefan will help lessen the girl's agony. If anyone deserves to be happy, it would be Caroline.

Caroline tried to ignore the feelings she had when Alaric said Stefan's name. This is a common recurrence now, how she reacted to even a mention of Stefan. She kept trying to ignore it even though lately, it was getting harder and harder for her to do so. "Alright. We're still on for lunch tomorrow right?"

"Yes. I'll bring those books." The teacher confirmed. "And, Caroline, be careful. Elena might not be a threat but there's no guarantee that it's even Elena that's doing this."

"I will."

"Bye."

"Bye, Ric." The blonde ended the call and instantly slipped that slim piece of technology back into her jean's front pocket. She then turned to Elijah and let out a smile. "I'm afraid I have to go. Duty calls and all that stuff."

Elijah nodded with an understanding smile. He, of all people, should know what family is and Elena and Alaric – whom he had been informed had risen from the dead – is Caroline's family, thus why she is needed to be there for them.

"It is a pleasure spending the evening with you, Miss Forbes." Elijah smiled, a genuine smile he had not let out for a while now.

Caroline took his kind smile to heart and extended him an equally warm gesture. "Please, call me Caroline. Miss Forbes sounds too… formal-ish."

"Very well. It's a pleasure spending time with you, Caroline. I do hope that the next time we meet, it will be under a much better circumstances." Elijah was taken aback by how sincere his words were. He did want to see Caroline again, more so than he would have ever thought he would.

The blonde girl simply let out a smile that sends a thundering pounding to Elijah's unbeaten heart. "Goodbye, Elijah."

"Goodbye, Caroline."

The Original's eyes never left Caroline's figure as she swayed out of the bar. Elijah might have not expected to see Caroline tonight but he was certainly glad he did.


	2. Chapter 2

**A/N:** First of all, I want to thank you each and every one of you who took time to read this fanfic and leaving reviews for it. I will try my hardest to update as soon as I can but you guys have to be patient with me because between work and writing my book, I don't actually have much of a free time in my hands so do be patient with me and keep giving me reviews, even criticism so I could do better in the next chapter. Love all of you and enjoy this new chapter!

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own any of these TVD characters.

 **CHAPTER ONE**

 **YEARS** of living had made Elijah almost immune to the twist and turns of fate. Nothing seems to surprise him anymore – that's what Elijah thinks eternity is, a sense of inability to be surprise by anything – not even Niklaus' miracle baby. He'd learn long ago that there's no such thing as impossible when it comes to his life – he is a vampire after all, it doesn't get more impossible than that – and that anything, absolutely _anything_ can happen. It is how he managed to keep his ' _cool_ ' at all times, how he always seems so calm and collected. Sadly though, even with all of his wise insight and eternal cool, nothing could ever prepare him for waking up naked next to the beautiful Caroline Forbes.

When he groggily opened his eyes that morning, the first thing he saw was the sunlight seeping through the room from the wide widow on his left. The light was so blinding to his eyes that he had to close it for a few seconds before slowly opening it again to let it adjust to all of this light. Once he could properly see, he was struck by the unfamiliarity of the room he was in. Since it wasn't the first time he'd woken up in a stranger's room before – despite his virtue, it had happened more than a handful of times in the past decade alone – Elijah simply took a few deep breath, trying to recall what had transpired the night before to lead him into such predicament. Warning bell started to sound off inside of his head when he couldn't remember anything from last night. The last thing inside of his memory was drinking in a bar with…

Good God!

Warily Elijah turned to look at his right side where he could feel the pressed of naked warm body entangled against his under the smooth white sheets. His brown eyes fall upon waves of blonde hair to the smooth skin of the shoulder and the neck before it landed on the soft features of a face not too familiar but enough to jolt recognition inside of his very confused mind that pretty much confirmed his worst fears.

There, lying peacefully with her head rested on his bare chest was Caroline Forbes, the blonde friend of Elena Gilbert who was the last person Elijah remembered being with before he woke up in this foreign room. Elijah admit, he and Caroline had never really been introduced formally to each other nor was he accustomed to her as much as he was to Elena and the Salvatore brothers – it was slightly odd, how despite how small Mystic Falls truly is, and considering how intertwined their lives was, the two of them never really had much chance of encounter – but after he had spend time with her, he had been enamoured by her. She was something else entirely, true beauty lies inside and out. He now understood what Niklaus had seen in her, _genuine beauty_. And yet, all of that didn't explain how the two of them managed to get under these sheets.

Maybe he was drunk – there was a slight pounding in his head that would explain the lack of memory and the one night stand – this could be some kind of a drunken one night escapade but if memory serves, the amount of alcohol Elijah had induced last night weren't able to lead such consequences. If this is indeed some kind of a drunken tryst, he prayed that his drunken self would be smart enough to sleep with Caroline away from Whitmore or anywhere near Mystic Falls where he is more than aware that his brother, who undoubtedly still harbour some feelings for the girl, had placed a few of his minions to look after the blonde girl and the town.

Somehow though, this doesn't feel like something that was done under the influence of alcohol, especially not for Elijah and Caroline, no matter how much alcohol they had induced the night before. They were both wary of the world, exhausted by everything and broken and wounded and although alcohol and those feelings doesn't mix well together, Elijah would never do such thing to his brother and he knew Caroline wouldn't either.

Maybe this is a dream or a nightmare – depends on how you look at it, really. The Original would have thought so if he couldn't feel the solidity of her body pressed against his – how her curvy chest rise up and down against his side, how one of her long legs tangled around his right leg, how one of her arms is slung over his abdomen and how his right hand was placed on her hip – or the feel of her warm breath on his skin. And if this is some kind of a nightmare, Elijah could think of plenty of other things to disturb his sleep but waking up next to Caroline is not one of it.

All of this, Caroline being in his arm, felt too real to be a dream, too right to be a nightmare and it scares the hell out of the Original.

A thought suddenly hit him.

What if this is another twisted mind games his mother was playing on him? What if this is her way of showing him the 'appeal of a human life'?

Elijah instantly tried to feel his chest, searching for a beating heart with his free hand. He let out a sigh of relief when he felt the steady, un-beating rhythm of his heart.

He's still an Original, thank the heavens!

Maybe this is fate's way of reminding Elijah that they can still very much surprises him. If that were the case, they bloody succeeded.

The movement from the sleeping girl on his side interrupted all form of thoughts forming in the Elijah's head. The Original's whole body went rigid and he stopped breathing altogether as he turn to look down at the blonde. Her beautiful blue eyes that seemed to look like the bluest sky under the ray of sunlight peeking through the window, opened slowly before it stare up into Elijah's brown ones. He watched how her eyes slowly drinking in her surrounding, how her groggy state slowly wither away and when her body froze almost instantly on Elijah's side, the Original simply waited for her to finally piece the information together and all hell to break loose.

When realization kicked in rather harshly in the blonde's mind, Caroline vamped out of the bed in fluster and affectively pulling the sheet along with her, leaving Elijah completely bare on the bed.

"The hell?!" Her tone was filled with confusion and a slight anger. Her reaction answered Elijah's suspicion. The young vampire also have no idea how they had ended up tangled under the sheet that she had now wrapped around her body.

Caroline's eyes wondered from Elijah perfectly calm and collected face down to his hard abs and the rest of his exposed body due to the covers being taken away from him. When the girl realizes just how completely naked he was, she let out a shrieked and instantly covered her eyes with one hand while the other firmly hold onto the sheet wrapped around her body. "Why are you naked? Why am I naked? Why the hell are we naked under the same cover, Elijah?" She frantically asked.

Elijah let out a sigh that he had been holding in since he woke up before calmly got out of the bed and looked around for his boxers brief. When he found it – it was on the floor along with his other piece of clothing – he quickly put it on. Once he'd slipped into it, he turned to face the baby vampire.

A smile tugging on his lips when he saw Caroline desperately trying to close her eyes and cover her body at the same time, completely oblivious to the fact that Elijah could still perfectly made out the figure of her body that was wrapped with that thin white sheet. As much of a gentleman as he is, even Elijah couldn't help but to admire the beauty of Caroline Forbes' figure.

"You can open your eyes now, Caroline. I am no longer indecent."

Not entirely believing his words, the blonde took a peek between her fingers before sighing in relief when she saw he was saying the truth. Elijah couldn't help but felt his ego somewhat bruised at the thought of Caroline not being exactly thrill to see his naked form. Was it that much of a discomfort for her to see him in all of his glory?

The blonde who was oblivious to his bruised ego, started pacing around the room. Confusion decorating her face. "What happened between us, Elijah?"

Elijah watched her paced back and forth in front of him as he sat calmly on the edge of the bed. "I'm afraid I am just as clueless as you are, Caroline as to what had transpired between us although if I had to guess, I believe you and I have fallen into a one night drunken tryst."

Caroline let out a groan. "Well, that explain the pounding in my head." She mumbled more to herself than to the older vampire before her movement suddenly come to an abrupt halt.

Elijah watched how her face twisted as if she was trying to remember something, probably what had transpired last night that led to this, before her eyes widened in panic when she realizes she couldn't actually remember anything much. "Oh, God, I can't remember anything that happened after we drank together, Elijah! What about you? Can you remember anything?"

"No, I can't."

"Ugh! We must've drank the whole bar down for this" she gestured at both of them "to happen."

Once again Elijah felt his ego slightly bruised by the blonde.

Caroline's eyes widened when she realizes that once again she had let her mouth run faster than her brain. "Not that I wouldn't sleep with you when I'm sober, I totally would – I mean, have you looked at you? – but I don't do brothers. That's Elena territory. Not that I'm saying there's anything wrong with it, the heart wants what it wants after all but none of this is making any sense and now you're laughing at me. Great!"

Elijah couldn't help it, despite his best afford, the laughter just bubbled out of him. It was a surprise really, to hear his laughter through his own ears. It sounded so foreign but yet so warm. God, when was the last time Elijah Mikaelson had laughed? It's probably a millennia ago. Life had not been very easy on him, life had not been easy on _any_ of the Mikaelson so laughter does not usually come as naturally to them as killing does. It was the simple moments like this that made him feels thankful that he is somewhat still alive to enjoy these little joys of life such as laughter.

Caroline resisted the urge to stomp her feet like petulant child and instead decided to narrow her eyes at him in a threatening manner. "I'm glad you're finding fun in this." Her lips pouted slightly.

Elijah managed to sober up from his laughter but his eyes still hold that hint of amusement in them as he looked at her. "I'm sorry, Caroline, it is not in my intention to make fun of you," his voice was soft and kind, a totally different side of him from what Caroline was used to see. But then again, Caroline hadn't seen a lot of him in the past so she could probably be wrong and Elijah had always been this soft and kind. Now she started to wonder what it would've been like if she had known Elijah more… closely back when he was still in Mystic Falls. Would her opinion of him changes?

"This is serious, Elijah. We are in a serious situation! We slept together without any memory of how it happened!" The blonde throw one of her free arm to give a dramatic flair before she stopped in front of the Original and her eyes finding his. "Where the hell are we anyway?"

As if finally realizing his surrounding, Elijah looked around, taking in the room they were currently in.

The room of four white walls were decorated with a king size bed with white sheets, white colored furniture and a painting hanging on the wall against the bed. It was also connected to a private bathroom and a closet. There was nothing weird or unusual about this room but it is not familiar to Elijah nor Caroline. The Original vampire made his way towards a large window that overlooked the view of the city. Upon acute evaluation, Elijah realized that they are actually in New York City, Upper East Side of Manhattan to be precise.

Huh? What were they doing in Manhattan? Better yet, how did they get to Manhattan? Whitmore is a long way home from this city and Elijah doubted they travel all the way here just to have a one night drunk scandal. And if that really was the case, whose house were they in? Why didn't they just go to a hotel like any normal people would do? Granted, both of them are far from normal but in the sense of one night stand and everything along that line, they are pretty normal, at least Elijah hoped he is. So what were they doing in a place that does not look familiar to any of them?

Caroline got frustrated not being able to find anything useful that would explain why they were there, inside the room decided to venture out and see what else is in this place and hopefully find the answers she seek. Her eyes instantly caught the beauty and expensiveness of the condo she seems to be staying in. Considering whose she's with, it wasn't really a shock. The Mikaelson always ride with style, even for a one night stand.

The house seem to be a simple modern design two stories apartment with the room Caroline and Elijah was in, up the stairs. When she venture down the stairs, Caroline found the living room with wood covering the marble floors. A very fancy kitchen was situated on the other side of the living room and there is a hallway through the middle of the wall that separates the living room and the kitchen. Caroline could see there's a few more rooms through the hallway that leads to the front door.

With hand still clutching tightly to the soft sheet that's covering her body, Caroline made her way towards the living room where there's a set of dark blue sofa in front of a wall with a flat screen TV and home theater sound system hanging against it. Caroline turned to her left side from where she's standing in the middle of the living room facing the TV and saw the balcony. It was situated there with a beautiful shiny sliding door separating the living room from the balcony outside. The young vampire could see the scenery of a city from there, the same one in the bedroom upstairs.

The house was incredible, that much was clear to Caroline. If all in honesty, this is the house Caroline had always imagined herself living in whenever she moves out of Mystic Falls to start a life in the big city. The decoration was elegant, the house itself was amazing and the view was spectacular! It truly was a dream house for the blonde. However, nothing about it seems to give a hint of what the hell happened between her and Elijah.

Caroline had to admit, waking up next to Elijah wasn't the worst thing ever happened to her – he's all tall, dark and handsome with a body of a Greek God! Let's be real, Caroline would have climb him up like a tree if she had the chance to – but she still felt an uneasiness feeling creeping in her heart at the thought of her actually sleeping with him. Not because he was disgusting or she hated him– no, it's because somehow it feels like a betrayal to Klaus, even if there's nothing going on between them nor will there ever will be. Caroline had meant what she said, she is not Elena Gilbert. This is not how she roll. She does not sleep with one brother and then went on to sleeping with the other. She'd seen how it almost tear the Salvatore apart, she will not let it tear Elijah and Klaus apart too. They already have enough of that going on.

The blonde girl let out a deep sigh. Caroline was about the head back up the stairs when she caught a sight of pictures hanging on the wall behind the sofa. It was a large framed photo hanging on the wall. Her jaws literally hit the floor when her eyes caught the sight of the photograph.

How the hell did she miss the picture when she first descendent down the stairs? It was straight in her line of sight!

Elijah was lost in his thoughts when he heard Caroline's voice calling for his name from outside the room. The Original calmly descendent down the stairs and headed for the blonde who was standing in the middle of the living room, looking at a picture hanging on the wall. Only when he arrived next to her did he let himself look at what she was looking at and oh boy, was he heading for the shock of his undead life!

In that picture lays Caroline and Elijah. The younger vampire had her back to the camera while the older vampire was facing the camera but he wasn't looking at it, he was kissing her, with one hand tilting her chin up and slightly to the side while the other was resting on the small of her back. She was wearing a white strapless dress with her hair loose and Elijah in the usual black tie white shirt tux and instead of his usual clean-shaved face, he was supporting some stubble that honestly make him look ridiculously hotter than he already is. Though he could only see her face from the side, it was pretty obvious to anyone with eyes that Caroline is the girl in the picture.

It was only then did they suddenly realized the rings heavy on their finger.

Good God, what have they done?


	3. Chapter 3

**A/N:** New chapter is here, yey! Sorry for the late update. My life is full of constant trips to the hospital now that my grandma is sick. I honestly hate hospitals, it make me want to bash my head against the wall whenever I have to go there but at least there's a couple of cute doctors I could ogle at, even if they wouldn't even bat an eyelash at me. Anyways, who watch the latest episodes of TVD and TO? I'm a Steroline shipper, as I'm pretty sure I have mentioned before so that latest TVD episode was like everything to me and then the crossover with Klaroline phone call or something is coming so I am totally all for it. TO latest episode was also a good one. Honestly, I only watch TO for Davina (Kolvina anyone?) and Freya so I was totally into it. Not a fan of Cami though. I like her, I actually kinda ship her with Elijah and I didn't mind her being with Klaus that much but then season three started and the writers are trying so hard to convinced us that she has "darkness inside of her" and I'm like so done with it. I can't wait for the crossover though. Finally we're gonna get some Klaroline after God knows how long. There might never be any Carlijah but hey, that's what this fanfic is for, so I could make Carlijah happen.

So, thank you for following my story and leaving reviews. I hope you guys enjoy the new chapter and don't forget to leave more reviews. Enjoy!

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own any of these TVD/TO characters (because if I do, I'm pretty sure it'll be a mess of shipwhoring everywhere).

* * *

 **CHAPTER TWO**

 **YOU** know that movie where Cameron Diaz met Ashton Kutcher in Vegas and they both got really drunk and ended up getting married by Elvis? That's what her and Elijah's current predicament felt like only it is much, much worse. Instead of a drunk marriage by Elvis, they got an actual real marriage, with the whole dream wedding and an album full of wedding pictures to prove it and instead of losing memory of one night, they lost the whole three freaking months. As if her life isn't shitty enough as it is, now she has to deal with this?

Thisis plain ridiculous! How the hell did she marry an Original and could not even remember it? Better yet, how the hell did a harmless drinking activity leads to a freaking marriage to an Original? None of it seems to make sense to Caroline as she paced back and forth in what turns out to be hers and Elijah's living room. When her eyes caught a glint coming from the shinning ring, the blonde stopped a few minutes to admire the rings on her finger. She had an elegant heart-shaped diamond ring – it was exactly like a ring she had dreamed off since she was just a little girl – and a gold wedding band – it's a custom made ring that are similar to the one Elijah is wearing, with Elijah's name engraved on hers and Caroline's on his – on her ring finger. Seeing those beautiful rings sitting perfectly on her finger made her pace around again. Questions without answers flooding her mind.

After the shock of seeing the wedding picture hanging on the wall wear off, Caroline went upstairs to find her things and imagine her not-surprise in finding her clothes and stuff inside of their bedroom. She quickly got dressed in the closet before striding back down stairs to the living room, giving Elijah a space to think and get dressed after her. The Original came down a few minutes later in – surprise, surprise – a suit, looking as put together as always. Honestly, Caroline do not understand the Original's obsession with expensive suit. Does he have a thing against t-shirt and jeans or something?

Elijah proceed to making some calls after that – from what Caroline could hear, he's calling whatever witch whom had owe him a favor or two in the past, asking for their help. The blonde didn't try to listen that intently and pulled out her own phone that she found it next to Elijah's on the dresser and started to go through her image gallery on her phone.

If this is somewhat a real, legitimate relationship, surely there's a lot of pictures of them stored in her phone. Caroline is still a girl after all – even if she is technically dead and will live forever – and in the nature of a 21st century girl, taking pictures, particularly selfies is her way of feeling somewhat alive. She's practically obsessed with documenting every little bits of her life that if Elijah is a part of it, Caroline is pretty sure there would be plenty of pictures of them in her phone.

It was less of a shock for the blonde to see the many, many pictures of her and Elijah, travelling to places together, the second time around. It was still a bizarre experience, almost like an out of body experience for her. Sadness washed over her as she looked at picture after picture of this foreign Caroline and Elijah, looking genuinely happy as they travel together to England, France, Germany, Australia, and all around America. There was pure, mad and wild love radiating in their eyes in every picture of them together that she was honestly taken aback by how raw it was. It left no doubt in the blonde's mind that she had married Elijah out of love and not some sort of weird reality manipulation spell or something like that. The problem is now, finding a way of remembering how it happened and what had caused them to forget about it.

When Elijah came back to the living room, Caroline was sitting on the sofa, staring down at her phone and looking annoyed and exhausted with all the questions inside of her head. He could feel his own annoyance and exhaustion bubbling up as he gracefully sat next to her.

Silence filled the room as they both kept their thoughts to themselves and letting their mind digest all the information into their head. Soon both of them come to accept the situation they had landed themselves in.

"I have call a witch, reaching for her help to figure out this memory loss of ours." The older vampire broke the silence, eyes landing on Caroline who was pouting next to him. It was quite endearing that Elijah couldn't help the small smile tugging on his lips.

"What was the last thing you remember?" The blonde asked.

"You and I, Caroline, drinking in a bar."

"That's my last memory too. How did that turn into weeks of love affair that leads to you putting a ring on me?" Caroline exclaimed, clearly frustrated with all the gap they had inside of their head. As a control freak who's obsessed with having control over every single thing in her life, not knowing what the hell had happened and having no control over what will happen next is literally torturing her.

"I'm afraid I am just as confuse as you are, Caroline. This is all very strange to me as well." He offered, hoping it would soothe the angsty blonde.

Caroline was quiet for a while, swallowing this piece of information before she looked up at him again. "Have you call anyone from back home?" She asked, wondering if he had dare to reach out to his family to see if they know about what had happened between the two of them.

Elijah shook his head. "No, I have not." He had not dare to if he was being honest. The Original knows all about Niklaus' history with Caroline. His brother had been chasing after the girl for quite some time now and she had consistently deny him of her affection so just imagine how he would react when he finds out that Elijah, his own brother, had made an honest woman of the girl he'd been pining over for years? The older Mikaelson is simply not prepare to deal with his brother's wrath at the moment. He has far more important matters to deal with.

The blonde let out a sigh and nodded in understanding. "Me too. I don't know what to say. I mean, I can't be like, hey guys, I've lost three months' worth of memory and in those lost three months, I had a love affair with Elijah Mikaelson and we ended up getting married. Do you guys know anything about that? And what if we're a secret and then they find out about you and me and Klaus does too and he finds us and kill me? I can't die again! I haven't even graduated college yet!" Panic suddenly slipped into her heart. Oh, God! What if they're actually on the run from Klaus? What if they're hiding here in New York because Klaus had found out about them? What if he finds them? What if he kills her and dagger Elijah?

On instinct, Elijah's hand reached out for hers, hoping that his touch would be able to calm her. "I will not let my brother or anyone else harm you in any way, Caroline. You have my word."

Caroline's face soften at the sight of Elijah's sincere face. "Just because we are somehow married now, doesn't mean I suddenly become your responsibilities, Elijah."

"It takes two to tango, Caroline. As much as it is on you, it is on me too. We are in this together."

A smile tug on Caroline's face. She wasn't his responsibilities, she can take care of herself but it is still nice for Elijah to say that he would protect her. An Original as a husband could come in handy.

"So what should we do now?" Caroline asked, feeling eager to get this whole supernatural detective work on the road.

"I believe we have an appointment with a witch." Elijah gracefully stood up and offered a hand to Caroline. The girl simply let out a deep breath and took Elijah's hand.

Elijah's witch friend, here we come!

* * *

 **TURNS** out Elijah's witchy friend is a lot more than a friend, if the daggering glare she had been giving Caroline ever since the blonde stepped into the room with Elijah is anything to go by. There was a thick tension that flowed in the room the moment the witch saw Elijah, who had one hand firmly behind Caroline's back, walks into the room. The way that brunette witch is looking at Elijah's hand behind her back and then straight at her face made Caroline feel slightly afraid for her safety. If looks could kill, she would be so dead right now.

Thankfully the witch gave up glaring at Caroline once Elijah opened his mouth. "It's been a while, Roselie." The way her name fell out of the Original's mouth made the young vampire wonder what had transpire between these two.

"It truly has been, _Elijah_." Roselie spit out Elijah's name. It made Caroline flinched at her venomous tone. "I was expecting to never ever have to see your face again." Her eyes moved from glaring at Elijah to glaring at Caroline again. "And who is this? A new hopeless girl who is falling for you that you would leave the moment Katherine Pierce came to town?"

And suddenly everything clicked inside of Caroline's mind. So this Roselie witch was Elijah's girlfriend or bang-buddies once upon a time and she was totally falling for him – could you blame her? Look at him! – But everything went to hell the moment a certain bitchy doppelganger came into the picture. Elijah probably chooses to be with Katherine and left Roselie all broken hearted. If only Roselie knew that Katherine is dead. Pretty sure she would celebrated it along with God knows how many other people, vampire and werewolves included.

Thinking about Katherine and what she had told Caroline about Elijah made the blonde wonder if he really was as good in bed as the doppelganger-vampire-turns-human had described to her once. If the soreness in all the right places she felt when she woke up this morning is anything to go by, Caroline would say yes, he is definitely good in bed. Now she felt even more bummed about not being able to remember the last three months she had spent with him.

Elijah face remained neutral, not even the slightest bit of affected by Roselie's jab. "Let's not ponder about the past, shall we?"

Roselie let out a fake smile. "Sure, whatever the almighty Original says."

The Original simply let out a deep breath as if he's trying to stop himself from letting out any undignified sigh before proceed again with softer tone. "I am in need of your assistance, Rose."

The witch simply crossed her arms against her chest and glared at Elijah. "And, why, oh why, should I give it to you?"

"I do believe that my brother still holds a grudge over what happened in Paris all those years ago. He might not be actively looking for the witch that had betrayed him but I imagine he would be thoroughly please if he finds out where she's been hiding all this time," Elijah's words were smooth and polished as he is and if one didn't know better, they would just thought Elijah was simply having a walk down the memory lane with Roselie but Caroline did know better –apparently threatening people to get what they want is a Mikaelson trait and it made Caroline wants to roll her eyes at how similar Elijah was to Klaus at that moment – so did Roselie which is why the witch simply let out a grunt. "What do you want?"

A satisfied smile graces Elijah's lips at the witch's submission. "I have come to realization that there is a blank space in my memories. I'm afraid I can't seem to recall what had transpired during this said blank space," the older Original stated calmly as if these things happened to him on daily basis. Well, considering who he is, it probably did.

Caroline simply stood still beside him, silently acknowledging the fact that he had kept the information to a minimum, giving Roselie only a gist of what is currently happening and refrain from mentioning Caroline's involvement in it. Like the rest of the Mikaelson, Elijah have many enemies who wish to seek revenge and seeks a way to hurt him. If word gets out about what had actually transpired between them and who Caroline is, she might be used to get to Elijah hence why he was being cautious. It was both annoying and sweet that Elijah thinks he needs to protect her.

"So someone had been messing with your memories?"

"Indeed. I need your figuring out who did this and retrieving the lost memories if it possible."

Roselie was quiet for a few minutes and Caroline could hear her head twisting and turning at this new bit of information. It left no doubt in Caroline's mind that the red head is planning on somehow using this to get her revenge on Elijah for breaking her heart, hell hath no fury like a woman's scorn after all, but Caroline prayed to God that the witch wouldn't be too stupid to seek her revenge now. She and Elijah already have three months' worth of missing memories to seek, they don't need a vengeful witchy ex to put into the mixture too.

"Fine," Roselie said after a while, "but we're even after this." Despite having the urge to ruin Elijah's life, Roselie decided to refrain from doing so. She really doesn't need another Original seeking for her head. After all, Elijah might have broken her heart but he had always been true to his words, even till this day, he had protected Roselie from Klaus' evil clutches. She owe him her life and if helping him with this will help her be out of the Original's debt, so be it.

Roselie pulled out a chair for Elijah. "Sit," she ordered before leaving the back room for a second to close her candle shop up front.

Elijah slowly retracted his hand from Caroline's back before heading towards the chair. Once he had graciously sat his adorable ass on the flat plastic surface, the witch came back with a knife and a small wooden bowl. Her whole body tensed when Roselie took Elijah's hand and cut it using the knife before letting his blood dripped into the bowl.

"What are you doing?" Caroline asked with a slight edge to her voice.

"I'm using magic to search his mind and see what is blocking his memories." The redhead answered without looking up to Caroline.

"The last time a witch messes with my friend's head, she ends up frying his brain and he lost all of his memories."

Roselie ignored Caroline for a while and simply dipped her fingers into Elijah's blood before putting down the bowl and stood behind him. She put her bloodied fingers on either side of Elijah's temple before finally looked up at Caroline. "Please, what kind of a witch do you think I am? If I am as incompetent as that witch you knew, Elijah wouldn't have come to me."

Caroline wanted to say something else but Elijah gave her a reassuring smile so she ends up shutting her mouth and let Roselie do her magic.

The brunette witch started to chant and Caroline watched carefully as Elijah closed his eyes while his body tensed a little. When Roselie's enchantment quickens, the wind that was never in the room suddenly picks up and all the candles around them suddenly lit up in fire. Caroline steer clear of the fire and stood close to Elijah and Roselie, preparing to intervene in case things went out of hand. Just when she was about to decide whether to stop Roselie or not, the witch's eyes suddenly went completely white and she let go of Elijah, breaking the spell.

The younger vampire quickly went to Elijah's side, hand gently placed on his shoulder to see if he is doing alright. "Elijah?"

The older Mikaelson slowly opened his eyes and a smile graces his lips when he saw the worry in Caroline's eyes. "I am alright," he brush off the feeling he gets when Caroline sigh in relief and turned around to face Roselie whose face was had been ridden out of all color. "What have you gotten from that spell?"

The witch took a few second to even her ragged breath before she answered Elijah. "Your suspicion is right, it's magic. Someone had been messing with your head, blocking your memories using magic, dark ones. Whoever that's doing this is insanely powerful, I tried to fend off the spell placed in your head and it almost kill me. And that's not even the worst of it."

"What do you mean?" The blonde asked, feeling more and more agitated by the minute.

"Are you familiar with the legend of Silas?"

Caroline let out a loud groaned. "Familiar as in he tried to kill me and my friends and played tricks on our mind? Yes."

Roselie looked at Caroline for a while before realization hits her. "So you're the one who was stupid enough to break him out of his prison?"

Caroline flinched at her accusation that is mildly true. "Not me, my friends. What does Silas have anything to do with all of this anyway? He's dead." At least Caroline hope so. Who's to say he didn't cross over when the other side went unstable anyway? Maybe not through Bonnie like Alaric and the rest did but he's one of the most powerful warlock ever lived, pretty sure he's more than capable of escaping the other side all on his own.

Roselie's eyes darken as she turned to face Elijah. "Whoever puts a spell on you is tapping the powers of a dark magic beyond the powers of Spirit and nature. They are channeling the same magic that helped made Silas an immortal, the same magic that made you what you and your siblings are today, Elijah."

Elijah couldn't help but to flinched at Roselie's words. So it's true then, that this is the work of his mother. Who else is there with such magic and power to do things like this? It is either Esther or Finn, neither of which really matter because when Elijah gets his hands on either one of them, they would regret the day the other side crumpled. He's a Mikaelson after all and inflicting pain, especially to their own blood and flesh are what they're all good at.

"I suggest you seek someone with a stronger magic than mine if you want to remember the memories that had been blocked inside of your head." Roselie offered, knowing there's nothing else she could do to help.

The Mikaelson silently took Roselie's suggestion into consideration. He knew exactly what he has to do now and though he dread it with all of his immortality, this is what's need to done.

Still with a calm and collected feature, Elijah straightened himself and turn to the woman who once had hold a dear place inside of his unbeaten heart.. "Thank you for your help, Rose. You have my word that Niklaus would not know the whereabouts of you from me."

"Thank you, Elijah."

Elijah casually stood up from his chair and stood beside Caroline. His eyes stared at Roselie as if he could see all of their memories played right there in front of his eyes. After a while, he let out a sigh of discontent. "For what it's worth, I am truly sorry for all the things that had transpired between us in the past. It is never in my intention to hurt you and the guilt of doing so will haunt me for the rest of my life."

Roselie simply let out a sad smile. "Just don't do the same to her," the witch titled her head towards Caroline who had to bit the inside of her lip to stop herself from correcting the witch and says that she and Elijah are not together. It would be stupid to do so when they're both wearing a wedding band on their ring finger.

Elijah smiled and took Caroline's hand gently into his before they both headed out of the room. There were many questions that had yet to be answered but for now, they can be satisfied with what they already know. They can figure out the rest together.


	4. Chapter 4

**A/N:** Olla friends and readers. The new chapter is thankfully here. Before you proceed into reading, I need to clarify a few things. In this story, Liz Forbes has yet to fall sick which means she will get sick but later than she did in the show. And for the purpose of this story, Klaus did not captured his mother and turn her into a vampire and that sort of things, it will be explain later in the story where she had gone to and why and all of that sort of thing. Dahlia would still be coming for Hope and Freya still do exist. Anyway, thank you very much to all of you that reads and love and review this story. You guys are awesome. And those Klaroline shippers that are reading this story, hey! Don't you guys worry, there will be Klaroline moments in here that you will appreciate and other Caroline ships too so enjoy.

Thank you again, for those who continue reading this story and reviewing it. I hope you will continue to love it all.

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own any of these TVD/TO characters (because if I do, I'm pretty sure it'll be a mess of shipwhoring everywhere).

* * *

 **CHAPTER THREE**

 **CAROLINE** fidgeted with her hands all the way back to the apartment she and Elijah apparently called home now. After they had left Roselie's candle shop situated in the middle of, weirdly, Chinatown, Elijah had hailed a cab to take them home. He was quiet the whole ride and since the blonde didn't know what to say to him, she decided to keep her mouth shut. She gets it, he has a lot of thing to digest – all the information Roselie gave them, finding out how to get both of them out of this situation and having to see an ex he had once wronged – so it must be really hard on him. She understand his need to process it all but she's Caroline Forbes, silence is not her best friend which is why she is desperately trying not to freak out by all that silence filling the small moving compartment they're in. If she was with her friends, Caroline would have let her mouth run off and probably end up saying something stupid but Elijah is not her friend – she doesn't have an actual category to put Elijah in right now – so she had to refrain herself from doing so. She's literally had to bite the inside of her mouth to stop herself from talking.

When the cab finally stopped in front of their expensive high-rise apartment building, Caroline couldn't help the sigh of relief that escaped her mouth. _Finally!_

Elijah paid the cab driver and leave a generous amount of tip for him before sliding out of the car and helped Caroline do the same. He offered his arm for the blonde who took it almost instantly and together, they make their way to the lobby.

When the two left the building earlier, the lobby had been empty and the doorman had probably left for the toilet or something so they didn't encounter anybody. This time though, the doorman was at his table, greeting people who walks in and there was some residence at the mail-box, probably checking their mails and some others lounging around on the lobby. Instinctively, Elijah pulled Caroline closer towards him.

"Good afternoon, Mr. and Mrs. Mikaelson." The doorman with a kind face and graying hair greeted the two when they walked into the building.

"Good afternoon, Richard." Caroline replied the man's greeting with a gentle smile, noting the man's name from the name tag he wore on the left pocket of his uniform.

"How was your day?" Elijah added, trying to keep up with the appearances of whoever he was before he lost his memories.

"Oh, the same old." The older man said before his eyes widened when he remembered something. "Your assistant stop by earlier, Mr. Mikaelson. She asked me to hand this documents to you." Richard took a black file from his desk and handed it to Elijah.

Elijah casually took it and thanked the older man before he and Caroline headed for the elevator. Caroline pushed the 'going up' button and they waited for the elevator to arrive. When it finally did, there was a tall beautiful blonde that looked as if she just came out of Vogue magazine's photo shoot inside of the elevator. The moment she saw Elijah, her eyes instantly lit up the same way a lioness' eyes did when it saw its prey.

"Hey, handsome," the girl bat her eyelashes at Elijah as if Caroline wasn't standing right next to him, holding onto his arm.

Caroline didn't know why but jealousy flared inside of her and she made a point to hold Elijah closer to her and let out a low growl of warning.

As if finally realizing that Caroline was there, the blonde supermodel turned to look at her and her smile turned mean. "Oh, Caroline. How was the fashion week? Did you get to see me walk the runway in a gold embed Versace gown? Oh, wait, you weren't there!" Her faked laughter made Caroline's skin pricked.

Whoever this blonde bimbo is, she clearly has a beef with Caroline and apparently, is chasing after her husband. Despite not having any memory of hating the girl, the baby vampire was having the hugest urge to suck the girl dry and left her dead on a runway. That would surely made the front news, 'Top Model Found Dead on The Runway'.

Elijah – who could literally felt Caroline's anger radiating out of her in waves – simply put his free hand on Caroline's arm that was entangled with his, hoping to refrain her from pouncing on the other blonde.

The feel of the Original's warm skin managed to get Caroline out of her fuming rage and snapped her back into reality. The blonde gave Elijah a grateful smile before she prompted them both to step inside the elevator. Once the elevator's door shut, Caroline turned to the other tall blonde who seemed to bathe in Caroline's anger and annoyance.

Elijah watched how the former Miss Mystic Falls' eyes caught the other blonde's eyes and her blue orbs expands, compelling the other to heed her words. "On your next runway show, you will trip on your legs and fall so embarrassingly on the runway that it'll become Youtube's most watched viral videos for an entire year. Oh, and if you dare come closer to my husband again, you will start feeling an itchy spell down on your lady part and you will tell any guy that comes even five feet closer to you that you have an STD. Do you understand?"

The other blonde repeated her words and Caroline smiled in satisfaction. When the elevator stopped at the 15th floor, the model walks out and Caroline simply bid her goodbye using her best Miss Mystic Falls' smile.

Elijah couldn't help the smile he supported on his face when he turned to look at Caroline once the door's closed once again.

"Oh, shut up!" Caroline scowled at him.

"I believe I did not say anything."

"Well your face did."

A whole-hearted laughter left Elijah's mouth which made Caroline grew even more annoyed. When did she became so territorial over Elijah anyway? They hardly ever speak to one and another before and now that she suddenly woke up as Mrs. Elijah Mikaelson, she became a jealousy ridden girl who compelled a girl to stay away from him? In her defense though, the girl was mean and was obviously trying to make Caroline feel bad about herself so she was simply teaching the taller and slimmer blonde not to mess with her and what belongs to her.

Thinking about the girl made the baby vampire realizes just how little she knows about this new Caroline she seems to woke up in. The only thing that seemed to be evident is that she and Elijah are a thing – a married couple to be precise – and they live in this expensive apartment complex in Manhattan. Everything else was a mystery. If Elijah have an assistant, that must mean he has a job and if he has a job, that means they lead an actual, normal life here in New York and Caroline couldn't help but to wonder what else is there to find out about her new life.

As if Elijah could read her mind, he looked down at the file he had in his hand. Richard had informed them that whoever left the file is his assistant which means he must have a job. Richard and the blonde Caroline had compelled in the elevator seemed to know them well enough to have formed a bond, even if the bond Caroline had with the girl was based on mutual hatred, it is still a bond. That kind of exchanged that happened earlier wouldn't have happened if they didn't know each other long enough to have history with one and another.

In the end, the Mikealson came to a conclusion that they need to figure out who they were before they lost their memories and what they have lost by not remembering any of it.

The elevator door dinged opened and Elijah lead the blonde out of the small moving cart and straight for their apartment on the top floor, the last one on the right. It is only then did Caroline realizes that she was actually living a life she had always dreamed off since she was a little girl. A great house, a dream husband and a happy life. Maybe Elijah isn't exactly who she had in mind when she thinks of someone to spend her whole eternity with – Caroline refused to ponder on who she thinks about when she thinks of that because that would open up to a bucket loads of deep, dark desires she's just not ready to deal with – but so far, he has been more than pleasant to be with that it made her wonder what had made her fall in love with him at the first place.

Elijah unlocked the door to their penthouse by putting his thumbprints on their house fingerprint security lock he had figured out earlier when Caroline was changing – Elijah had carefully inspected every inch of the house in hopes that it may jotted his memory but his efforts turns out to be futile seeing that his memories are locked by magic that is older than himself – and opened the door for them once the lock turned green. He let Caroline slipped inside first and then followed closely behind her. Once the door is safely locked, they both headed for the living room.

Caroline decided that she needed some answer about herself so she headed upstairs to their bedroom and picked up her laptop before strolling back to the living room where Elijah was waiting for her with a bottle of wine and two wine glasses on the table.

"Wine after spending a few hours married to me? Pretty sure there's a compliment in there somewhere." The blonde joked as she slipped next to Elijah on the sofa.

The older vampire handed her one of the wine glass and took the other one for himself. He took a few sips of it before a playful smile graces his usually-serious face."In my defense, I've been married to you longer than a few hours, or so it seems."

"Ah! I guess it's a good thing I brought this down then," Caroline pointed at the laptop on her lap, "I'm gonna figure out just when did I lost all common sense and decided it was a great idea to marry you. No offense."

"Believe me, Caroline, I am wondering the same thing."

Caroline took a few sips of her wine before she set down the glass and opened her laptop to start digging through the contents of it. Once she had gone through it all, she turn to the internet and social media, absorbing every piece of information about herself that she could find. It was amazing how much you can find out about someone's life through their Facebook, Twitter and Instagram page. Caroline will forever be thankful to whoever that made Social Media a thing because it is making her detective work a hell of a lot easier.

Elijah patiently watched as Caroline's face gives out many emotions to whatever the contents of her laptop seems to give and how she kept reaching for the glass of wine. The Original even made an effort to keep refilling her glass with wine every time it becomes empty. He could see how not knowing anything about her situation was driving the baby vampire crazy so he just sat there comfortably and let her do her thing. He could dwell on his situation and the black file on the table once the blonde finished with her effort.

After an hour or so, Caroline finally put down her laptop. Her eyes find Elijah's and she lets out a deep sigh. "Well, now I'm even more upset that we've lost our memories."

The older Mikaelson raised an eyebrow at that and once again filled Caroline's empty wine glass.

Caroline finished the wine in one gulp before she put the glass down and start ranting to Elijah about what she had found. "First of, I changed my name to Mikaelson after our small private wedding that happened four weeks ago in Venice – there's a video of it in my laptop but I haven't seen it yet because I'm sure you would want to see it too so we'll do that later – Oh, there' s tons of pictures of us on my Facebook – I'll let you see that later too. We've been together for roughly three months, as you may have guess, and we moved into this house right after the wedding. I'm currently working for one of the event planning firm here in Manhattan and that bimbo supermodel from the elevator is the bane of existence. Her name's Alexandra, she hates me and makes it her life's goal to ruin me because when we first moved in, she tried to put her dirty paws all over you and I told her off. Last week, you gave me a new car, a blue Mini Cooper as a present and I totally love it. We just got back from Greece where I was there for work and you decided to tag along so we can make it as our temporary honeymoon. It's your way of making it up to me because you're busy with the law firm hence why we still haven't gone on a real honeymoon yet. There's no mention of anything about my friends or my mom or your family, not even a slightest mention of Mystic Falls and New Orleans. It's like that part of our life never existed before."

Elijah took in the information Caroline had given him and he wonders how exactly they can maneuver three months together – and not exactly hiding it – without his brother or her friends finding out about it. It seems impossible that his family and her friends isn't out looking for them unless there's something stopping them from doing such thing. His eyes finds the black file on the table and with heavy sigh, Elijah reached for it and opened it up.

It seems that Caroline's right, he is working at a law firm. In fact, he's an attorney and the black file consists of information on his newest case – a custody battle over two children. An attorney seems like something Elijah would have fallen into if he's trying to live a normal human life. Of course, being a vampire would've made his job a lot easier seeing as he can just compel the truth out of people or manipulate them to his favor but he doubt he's using his power for the later cause. Pretty sure whatever version of Caroline Forbes he had married, she is still the same person he had known and she surely as hell wouldn't let Elijah do immoral things such as compelling witness to lie just so he could win a case in court. Not that he himself would have done such thing. He is a man of honor after all.

The life he seems to be leading felt almost as if someone had written a perfect life for them and sprung them right into it. Maybe that was the case, maybe this is his mother's way of showing him that he could have a normal life, away from all the supernatural mess. His mother had been trying to persuade him and the rest of his siblings to the appeal of mortal life and what better way to do so by giving him all he had ever wanted? The question now is, why did she blocked out all the memories after three months? Why didn't she just let Elijah be, living a normal life the way she wanted him to? Why took away all those beautiful memories and left him with questions and confusions instead? Did someone finds out about it? Is that why she suddenly decided to end these fantasy? Maybe this is just another move in her grand plan to fix them all? And what does Caroline have anything to do with it? Elijah would have thought his mother would be smarter and put Hayley – no matter what had happened, he do still feel something for the mother of his niece – inside of this dream life instead. He could not see where does the blonde girl fit into all of this.

And then it hit him… what if Caroline was their mother's way of hurting Niklaus? It would certainly make sense seeing as his brother do cares a lot about the girl. What better ways to break and torment Niklaus' heart than making his own brother steal the girl he fancies?

Is this what their mother wants? To put a wedge between him and Niklaus? Is thousand years of hatred and revenge between them not enough for their mother? Did changing them into a monster and then proceed into trying to kill them not enough for Esther that she has to play these mind games to torment them even further?

Elijah felt the frustration building up inside of him, clouding his senses with anger and pent-up emotions he had been carry along with him for a thousand years. He hadn't been the same after his mother took him and tortured him with memories of Tatia and many other visions of hurting the people he loves and being in this situation now, just brings all that tortures memory back into his head. Pure panic and rage surge through him when that he quickly reached for the wine glass and down the liquid all at once to take the edge off. It didn't help much, for panic and anger continue to rises and he was seeing red. He knew he was losing it but he couldn't seemed to grasp onto anything that keeps him grounded.

Just when Elijah's face started to darkened, just when insanity was about to take over, a touched of a smooth and warm skin on his harden fist woke him up from the agonizing spell of hatred and fury his mind was in. Like an anchor, Elijah focuses on the feel of Caroline's gentle touch to soothe his mind and grab a hold of himself. Slowly, the sense of panic, rage and helplessness withered away and the Original once again was in control of himself.

When Elijah looked up at her, Caroline was staring at him with concern in her eyes and a comforting smile on her lips.

"Are you okay, Elijah?" Elijah could hear worry in her voice that it made him smile.

Despite not feeling exactly one hundred percent as his old self, Elijah nodded. There is no need to worry Caroline about his current state of mind. His inner turmoil was his to conquer and his alone. He doesn't want to drag the girl into it. She has enough mess to deal with because of him, he does not wish to add one more on her plate. "Yes."

He could tell that the young vampire wasn't buying his bull but she was polite enough not to push it. Caroline simply nodded and pulled hand away.

Elijah's heart cringed at the lost of her warm skin.

"We should call someone," Caroline said nervously after a few quiet moment. "Your family or my friends. We need to figure out if they know what is going on with us, if they also experience this weird time jump as we did or if they're even alright. We need to find out why they're non-existent in our new life, Elijah." Despite not having the guts to, the blonde knew that they have to deal with it one way or another so why not just do it now and get it out of the way.

Elijah nodded silently, knowing that there is no other way around it. It is concerning how their family and friends doesn't seem to exist in their life these past three months and that they are nowhere near of finding them. There was a slight fear in Elijah's gut that suspects something might've happened to them though he does not wish to jump into conclusion just yet. No matter what happened though, they need to reach to their love ones sooner rather than later so might as well ripped it off like a band aid while they still can.

"So what's it's gonna be, yours or mine?" Caroline tilted her head to the side, bright blue eyes staring straight at him.

Elijah took a second to weight down his options before coming to a decision. "I suggest we take the safest route, Caroline. Yours." He was so not in the mood to deal with Niklaus' wrath right now, thank you very much.

Caroline pouted as she fished out her phone from her jean's back pocket. "Wuss." They both know Caroline's friends are the safer option here and why Elijah didn't want to call his family but still, Caroline never thought the Original would be the type to fear his own family. Then again, if you have Klaus as a brother, Esther as a mother and Mikeal as a father, you would probably be afraid of your family too.

Elijah smiled. "I'd prefer wise."

Caroline laughed a little before she looked down at her phone and speed dial Alaric's number. Out of all of her friends, Alaric seems be the least likely to be angry and judgmental about all of this. Stefan is out of question, seeing as he had left without saying goodbye or care enough to answer any of her phone calls – although the last three months could have changed that – Elena would freaked the hell out, so would Tyler so that's a no. Matt and her mom would worry endlessly about her, Jeremy just didn't care and Enzo… well, let's not drag Enzo into anything. So that just leave Alaric in the equation. After all, Alaric had somehow become Caroline's only friend left after Bonnie's and Damon's death. He was the only one left she could talk to and confide in, it seems logical that she reached out to him now that she had gotten herself into a mess she didn't even know how she managed to get herself into at the first place.

It only took two rings before Caroline heard Alaric's voice from the other line, calling her name rather frantically in her opinion.

"Hey, Ric," the blonde simply said, not sure if she should sound chirpy like her usual self or panicking like she's currently feeling like.

"Oh, thank God you're alright, Caroline!" The blonde could literally felt Alaric's relief flowed out of his body. "Where have you been? Why didn't you answer any of our calls? Everyone's been looking for you everywhere for months, Caroline!"

"What do you mean?" Caroline asked, eyes came in contact with Elijah's who was also listening to her conversation. Alaric's respond to her answered their question whether their friends and family knew off their whereabouts in the last few months.

"You've banished from the face of the earth for three months, Caroline. No has heard from you, no one has seen you, you're just… gone. We've tried doing a locating spell to find you, we've called you and texted you a million times, your mother had sent out a search party and reported a missing person's case, Bonnie tried-"

Caroline eyes widened at the mention of her presumably dead best friend. "Bonnie? Bonnie's back?"

Alaric let out a loud sigh, as if he was as relieved as Caroline was. "Yeah, she and Damon are back. So is Stefan."

Caroline couldn't help it, how her heart seemed to tighten at the mention of Stefan's name. Lately, it has been a normal occurrences for her, how she reacted to something as simple as the younger Salvatore's name. The fluttering in her stomach had always been there when it comes to Stefan, it started as soon as Caroline first laid her eyes on him but she always just brush it off. After a while, she can hardly even noticed it. Only when things started to go downhill with Tyler and Stefan become her only constant did she become aware of the fluttering again only this time, it gets stronger and stronger each time she spends her time with him. Maybe that's why it hurts so much when he left, because he was her only constant.

Elijah took notice of the sudden change in Caroline, how she flinched at the mention of the former ripper's name, but refrain from commenting on it. Things slowly make sense in Elijah's mind as he watched her struggle to keep her emotions in check after the mere mention of the young men's name. Now he knows why his blonde companion could hardly spare a glance towards his brother or why Niklaus' effort to eliminate the competition was futile effort, he had chased the wrong boy out of town.

The blonde girl simply shook the thought of Stefan out of her mind and focused on the situation she had at hand. Whatever she feels for Stefan, he obviously doesn't feel it back. Not like it even matters now anyways. She's married to an Original and had no memories of how it happened, her complicated feelings for her now ex-best friend is the least of her concern.

"A lot happened since you went missing, Caroline. God, where the hell have you been?" Alaric asked, genuinely worried about the baby vampire.

"Well, it's…" Caroline looked at Elijah, who simply let out a deep breath, "complicated," she summarized. It is, complicated and she's not even sure if she can explain it on the phone. Heck, she's not even sure she can explain it in person! Everything is still a jumble of mess and the information they had is not nearly enough to explain exactly what had happened.

"Where are you? Should I tell Stefan and Damon to go and get you?"

"That won't be necessary, Ric. We're in New York."

"We?" Alaric's voice picked up when he registered Caroline's tongue slipped. "Who are you with, Caroline?"

The blonde mentally cursed herself for letting such information slipped out of her mouth. _Why are you so stupid, Forbes…or Mikaelson? Or whatever!_

"Again, it's complicated, Ric."

"Whatever it is you're doing in New York, you need to come home, Caroline. Kai just helped Stefan and Damon freed their mom from prison world and their mom is obsessing over freeing her crazy adopted family trapped in there but we can't let her do that because we've left Kai there for what he did to Bonnie and freeing him is not an option and I'm getting married soon and-"

Caroline quickly stopped Alaric's long rambling that was quite hilarious – since when did her ex history teacher/ex hunter rambled? Wasn't that her job? – and tried to breathe in all the information ramble Ric had given her. "Wait, who's Kai? What prison world? Damon's and Stefan's mom is alive? You're getting married? To whom? When? And since when did you ramble, Ric?"

Caroline could hear the older man took a deep long breath and slowly letting it out. The blonde could feel the lines forming on her former teacher's forehead. "Just come home, Caroline. We'll talk all about how I've suddenly picked up your rambling traits when you're here. Mystic Falls is save again for every supernatural being, you can come home now."

"I can?" Her voice breaks a little. She wasn't prepare to deal with the emotions that rushed through her after hearing that bits of information. She had spent months trying to find a way to save their hometown, she stop living her life for that sole purpose and now that she finally gets what she wants, she wasn't sure if she could even go back home anymore. Everything was such a mess and Caroline hated it.

"Yes, Caroline, you can."

Caroline let out a sad sigh. She really missed her mom, her friends and her home. Though her life here in New York seems great, it doesn't feel like it belongs to her, at least not without her memories. Everything is so foreign to her, everything but Elijah and even he is not so familiar to Caroline. God, she wished she could go home and forget all of this ever happen but she can't. They still need to figure out who did this to them, why they did this to them and find a way to lift up the spell that's blocking their memories so she can't go home, not yet. She does not want to bring whatever troubles that's hunting her back to her friends and family and she doesn't want to let Elijah deal with this alone. Like Elijah had said earlier, it takes two to tango so this is her problem as much as it is his. They are in this together, for better, for worse.

"I can't."

"Why not?"

The baby vamp let out a sigh. "Again, it's complicated, Ric. But I'm safe and well, you don't have to worry about me. I'll be home as soon as possible, maybe even soon enough to catch your wedding. Text me when and where it'll happens and I'll be there but I can't come home now. There are a lot of things I need to handle first."

"Are you sure you're safe?"

Caroline eyes flickered towards the older vampire next to her and a smile formed on her face. "Yes. I'm safe." She's probably safer with Elijah than she'll ever be with her friends in Mystic Falls.

"Okay." Alaric sigh in defeat.

"Can you tell everyone, especially my mom, that I'm fine and that I love her and I'm sorry for all the worry I had given her and that I will see her soon? Tell Bonnie that I miss her and I'm glad that she's alright and I'm sorry I wasn't there to help her get out of wherever she was in. Tell Elena that I'm fine and that she doesn't have to worry about me. Give my hugs and kisses to all of them, even Damon and tell them I'll be home soon, will you, Ric?"

"I will. Be careful, Caroline. I don't know what kind of trouble you're in but we'll be there for you if you need us."

"Thanks, Ric. I'll talk to you later. Bye."

"Bye," after hearing Alaric's final word, Caroline put her phone on the table and let out a deep, deep breath. Hearing about what had happened in her home town was harder than Caroline had imagined it but at least now she knows that they're fine. Maybe trouble is brewing here and there in Mystic Falls but when was the last time it didn't? They'll make through it, they always do.

"We can go back to Mystic Falls if that is your desire, Caroline." Elijah offered. He heard every word being said in the conversation – how the teacher is getting married and how the Bennet witch and the older Salvatore is back and how once again, Mystic Falls is in peril – it would only be logical for Caroline to go home and be there for her family and friends. If it is her decision to do so, Elijah would honor it.

It made the young girl smile knowing that Elijah would let her leave for her hometown and come along with her if that is her wish. Caroline could see now where the 'Noble Original' nickname came from. "I'm not sure bringing you back home to meet the family would turn out well for either party," she said, only half-joking. "It doesn't matter anyway. My place is here, with you so we can figure out what happened to us. We're in this together, remember?"

Elijah nodded. "Indeed we are."

The living room went silent for a few minutes, leaving both Caroline and Elijah to their thoughts but it was cut off short when a grumbling sound came from Caroline's stomach. The former cheerleader's face went completely red while Elijah simply could not contained the laughter that escaped his mouth.

"Shut up!" The blonde frowned, upset that Elijah was laughing at her and embarrassed that he had heard her stomach growling. "I'm starving okay. We haven't eat a thing since we woke up and it's already way past lunch."

The Original managed to control his laugher and calmed his feature after a while though a small smile still danced on his lips as he watched Caroline tried so hard to control her flushing face. The girl just made a face at him when she saw his smile and then stood up from the sofa and stomped her way to the kitchen. It only made Elijah's smile grew wider.

Caroline headed straight to the fridge once she was at the kitchen. Since she and Elijah are still vampires, the girl was hoping that they have some blood bags stacked inside of the fridge. She wasn't really that surprised to see how fully stocked their fridge was. Whoever she had been the last three months, she was still Caroline Forbes and Caroline Forbes is nothing but thorough. She never does anything half-heartedly, even if it is something simple as grocery shopping. Even back in Mystic Falls, she was always the one to constantly stacking up her friend's fridges with food – blood for the vampires, although Damon would try to argue that it was him that handle the blood portion but he's wrong – so that none of them would end up starving. That's how she ends up being the Mama Bear of their little group. Always taking care of everything and everyone. That didn't seemed to change once she married Elijah and took his name.

Wondering if she really is the same person as she had always been in these missing past months, Caroline reached for the small compartment hidden behind the ice cube rack where she usually hid four or five bag of blood bag in, just to make sure no human stumble upon it accidently. A smile formed on her face when she felt the blood bags. Yep, still herself!

She pulled out two bags of B+ and turned around to throw one to Elijah who was still at the living room. The Original caught it effortlessly and Caroline turned back to the fridge and started taking out a few ingredients for the chicken and mushroom pasta she's planning on cooking. It was one of her father's signature dish that Caroline had picked up in that small amount of time where they were both in a good place.

Once she had all the ingredients out, Caroline close the fridge off and then she took the blood bag she had taken out earlier and ripped the top open and started drinking the blood. The blonde didn't realized just how hungry she was until she had drank the whole blood bag dried in a matter of seconds. She threw away the bag away after that and went to the sink to rinse out her mouth. When she turns around, Elijah had made his way towards the kitchen counter with his tie and suit jacket off and the sleeves of his white shirt rolled up to his elbow.

"How can I be of assistance, Mrs. Mikaelson?" His said with a cheeky smile that remind her of Klaus.

Caroline ignored the feeling she got when he calls her Mrs. Mikaelson and looked at him as if she's assessing him. "You can cook?"

The original let out a short breath as if he's offended that Caroline would think otherwise. "It would be shameful to lead an eternity if you do not at the very least pick up how to make a good Risotto."

"Well then, can you please dice up the onions, pull the bones out of the chicken and rinse the mushroom? I'm gonna boiled the Spaghetti and get ready to make the sauce."

Elijah nodded and they both went to work. They spend the whole half an hour maneuvering around the kitchen, skillfully preparing the food. Elijah was simply a master with the knife and he made dicing up onions and pulling the bones out of the chicken looks easy while Caroline always seemed to know exactly what to put in the dish and the quantity of everything. It was the first time they really work together but if a stranger were to see them maneuver aroung the kitchen with each other, they would've guess that Caroline and Elijah had been doing this for a lifetime. They were so perfectly in sync with one and another that it didn't even feel as if they had never done this before.

By the time the dish is done, it was already seven o'clock in the evening so Caroline set the table and platted the dish while Elijah pulled out a bottle of champagne they had in their alcohol cabinet to go along with their dinner.

"This pasta taste splendid, Caroline." Elijah commented, not exactly surprised that Caroline could cook up something that taste as good as this simple pasta. In the short time they had spent together, Elijah had realized that Caroline Forbes had a way of suppressing all of his expectations.

"I'm glad you like it," Caroline smiled. It's not exactly her effort alone, Elijah pitched in equally as much but she'll take all the compliments anyway.

The two eat their dinner peacefully while carrying out an easy conversation. Whatever hell is coming for them in the near future, they'll handle it together once they finish their dinner.


	5. Chapter 5

**A/N:** Hello to all of my lovely readers. I'm back! Finally. First of all, I want to apologize for the late update. I got tied up with work and had an emotional couple of weeks so I didn't get many chance to write. Thank you to all that left a review and follow this story. I love all of you guys so much. And one of you asked if the family in this fic will be AU and at first, I did considered making everything AU except for Caroline and Elijah but then, I wouldn't get to play around with Klaus and make him suffer a little so I decided against it. Everything is still as close to cannon as it can. Anyway, I hope you guys enjoy this new chapter, don't forget to leave a review and hopefully, this chapter will be long enough to make up for the late update.

*English is not my first language so I do apologize for the grammar or spelling mistake I made"

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own any of these TVD/TO characters (because if I do, I'm pretty sure it'll be a mess of shipwhoring everywhere).

* * *

 **CHAPTER FOUR**

 **WAKING** up the next day to a beautiful metropolitan sunrise was slightly easier for Caroline. She did at first, had a minor panic attack when she opened her eyes and realized she was in an unfamiliar room but when everything slowly crashing down on her sleep ridden head, the blonde instantly calmed down and decided to simply lay awake on the bed and let herself be lost in her thoughts for a little while.

Last night, after dinner, she and Elijah started talking about their next course of action and after a long and hard discussion, with both of them laying out their options, they came to an agreement that for now, heading back to New Orleans seems like the right course of action. After that, Elijah quickly informed Caroline about the situation they had in New Orleans – what had happened after the Originals left Mystic Falls, how his mother and two other dead brothers had risen from death, the whole thing with his mother's twisted mind games . She didn't know what to think of all the information dump the older vampire had given her – effectively trying not to think about Klaus and Hope and Hayley – and focuses on what is important and that is, finding out who took their memories, why and first and foremost, how the hell to get it back which is why they had decided to leave for New Orleans.

If Caroline was being completely honest with herself – which she's currently not – , she is completely against this whole idea of heading back to the Big Easy and possibly – definitely – having to see Klaus again. Heck, she had even prepared a ten pages long argument of why they shouldn't step a foot in New Orleans in her head! But then Elijah told her all about his family's trouble, how his mother is set on destroying them and she just had, _had_ to look at his face and see how worried he was for his family and just like that, the blonde simply lost her will to spoke out her SAT's worthy argument. The Original even made a lot of compelling points to Caroline on why they should go to New Orleans – i.e. this memory lost have his mother's name written all over it which means she might be the only one who knows how to undo it – so she can't really argue with his logic.

The baby vampire let out a deep sigh before she turned to look at the empty space on the bed beside her. Elijah, like a complete gentleman he is, had decided to sleep on the sofa in the living room despite knowing the bed was huge enough for the both of them. He was trying to give her the space and privacy she needed which Caroline was, at that time, grateful for but now, as she reached for that empty space where he should be sleeping on, she couldn't help but to feel somewhat, lonely. And that surprises her, how much his lack of presence fill the room, how waking up without him next to her makes her heart cringe almost painfully. It was scary how attached she was to him, how things between them just feels so natural like breathing the air. She and Elijah felt so undeniably right, it scares the shit out of her.

Not wanting to dwell more on whatever it is she's currently feel for the Original, Caroline instantly hopped off the bed and head for a much needed long and warm bath. The blonde had figured out yesterday that her fancy bathroom is equipped with its own sets of Jacuzzi and personal settings for the light, mood and music and since they'll be leaving soon and won't know if they'll ever come back again, she decided to take every advantage of their wonderful bathroom and drown herself in comfort. This is one of her go-to activity whenever things gets too crowded and messy in her heart and in her head. Somehow bath time always helps clear her head and heart.

The baby vampire set the setting of the bathroom to a relaxation mode – where the light in the bathroom dimmed and the windows were automatically shut off – and put herself into the bubbling Jacuzzi. She closed her eyes and let the sound of classical music that was playing inside of the bathroom calmed her mind and soul. She doesn't know how long she was in there but once she got out of the bathroom, Caroline felt refreshed and at ease. The weight that was burdening on her shoulders felt slightly lighter and she felt more like herself than she did the moment before.

Caroline walked into the closet after her bath with a smile and had fun looking through all the clothes she has, momentarily forgetting about all of her troubles. Her closet was filled with her clothes and accessories on one side and Elijah's on the other. The blonde giggled when she realizes just how completely contrast her wardrobe was from Elijah's. While his are full of formal looking clothing, Caroline's were filled with many ranges of every type of clothing, from skinny jeans to fancy dresses in many shades of bright and colorful colors too, something Elijah's wardrobe seems to be lack off. She wasn't that surprise about it though, his wardrobe certainly mirror his personality and she couldn't help but to wonder if the Original ever had an out of character moment or if he ever just let himself loose once in a while. It must be stressful to always be serious, to always be noble and in control all the time. Trust her, she would know.

The sound of someone – probably Elijah who must've woken up when Caroline was in the Jacuzzi – walked into the bathroom snapped her from her mussing and the blonde quickly find something to wear. She found a beautiful yellow sundress that totally screamed 'Caroline Forbes' and put it on along with a pearl white cardigan. Then she paired it with a pair of red pumps. Once she was happy with her outfit, the blonde walked out of the closet and went straight to the grooming desk where all of her makeup, accessories and curling iron was. She put a minimal amount of makeup on and then started curling her blonde waves the way she wants it to.

Elijah walked out of the bathroom precisely after Caroline had done curling her hair and she was grateful for that because if he had walked out when she was curling her hair, there's a huge possibilities she might've burn her hair while staring at him. He was in a white towel that was wrapped low around his waist, his hair was wet and the smell of his aftershave filled the whole room almost as instant as he stepped out of the bathroom. The blonde suddenly wishes she had opened the window earlier because man, it was getting hot in there.

The older vampire who was oblivious to her sudden need for cold air, simply made his way towards the closet, looking like a perfect male specimen he is, _of course_! Which is why Caroline couldn't stop her eyes from trailing around his puffed chest to his hard toned abs and down towards the slight V-line she could see from above the low ridden towel on his waist when he walked.

 _Well, hello, Mr. I-have-a-body-of-a-Greek-God!_

Elijah suddenly stopped in front of the closet and turned to look at her. The amused look on his face made Caroline's face turns red. "I said that out loud, didn't I?"

The Original nodded, letting out a low vibrating chuckle while leaning casually against the doorframe of the closet. "I am honored to know that you think I have a body of a Greek God… although the Viking in me feels slightly offended by it."

Caroline let out an easy laughter. "Well, you're no Thor, the Chris Hemsworth's Thor but you're definitely hotter than Luke Evans' Zeus."

"I'm flattered either way." He smiled and the baby vampire's heart went fluttering inside.

"Well, um –"She abruptly stood and awkwardly look around. "I probably should, you know, go down and do something." Not wanting to end up doing anything more embarrassing than what she already did, the blonde instantly made her way out of the bed room and straight to the kitchen with her phone in hand. She heard Elijah's smooth chuckled before she leave and it made her face flush redder. When she arrived at the kitchen, she simply let out a groaned.

 _Ugh, why do my mouth have a brain on its own?_

While still reeling from her embarrassment, Caroline suddenly caught a sight of the sofa where Elijah had slept on last night. He had folded the cream blanket he'd used last night and placed it neatly on the pillow which simply just made her earlier guilt clenched the inside of her stomach. How he could even managed to sleep on that sofa – if he even got to sleep at all – was beyond her! The furniture simply does not look pleasant to sleep on at all but yet the Original somehow managed and he even took the liberty to make the sofa instead of just leave it be. It was completely wonderful of him that Caroline decided that the least she could do for him is to prepare them some breakfast.

Putting the phone aside, she quickly worked on preparing breakfast consists of pancakes, eggs and bacon for both of them. Once she was done plating the food, she brewed the coffee into the coffee pot and let it do its work and then worked on heating up two mugs of blood in the microwave. Once she got everything ready, Caroline took out her phone and started going through her Instagram page while she waited for Elijah.

Last night when she did it, her mind was a mess and she went through her page in a bit of a rush and was overwhelmed by confusions and questions, she hardly managed to look through all the pictures she had uploaded which is why Caroline decided to do it again. It was slightly less of a shock to see all these pictures of her life, the one she had decided to share with Elijah, for the second time around. Shockingly enough, there's quite a few pictures of Elijah on her page. She would have thought that he wouldn't be the type of a person who enjoys taking picture moreover letting someone post it online but then again, it's Caroline Forbes we're talking about here – there's a reason why she became the reigning Queen Bee of Mystic Falls High all throughout freshmen year until the end of senior year – even the great Damon Salvatore couldn't say no to her, consciously or subconsciously, which is why it wouldn't surprises her if she had actually made the Original posed for all of his non-candid pictures.

The first ever post that Elijah had appeared in, it was a candid picture of him that the baby vampire must've taken without him knowing. From what she could see, they're in a café somewhere in London with an empty cup of coffee on the table. The older Mikaelson was sitting on a chair, his face ever-so-serious as he looked down at the newspaper he had on his lap. Despite being on a gateway with Caroline, Elijah still supported that formal black suit he's so fond of and still look as put together as Elijah Mikaelson ever is. It made Caroline smiled when she read the caption of the picture.

 _'My Englishman in his favorite suit. How very fancy.'_ Many emoji ended the caption. It wouldn't be Elijah if he's not in a suit. By now, Caroline is pretty convinced that the older Mikaelson have something against jeans and t-shirts.

The rest of his pictures are mostly the ones he took with Caroline while some are candid pictures she took of him. Apparently the Caroline who is married to Elijah was convinced that she could take at least one bad picture of the Original but all of her attempts was in vein because no matter what she did, the honorable Mikaelson always managed to look good in each and every one of them.

Caroline stopped scrolling down her page when she caught a picture of herself, showing off the engagement ring on her ring finger. She had her back against the most beautiful and scenic sunset and ocean view in Cinque Terre, Italy and the smile she wore on her face was one of the happiest smile she had ever seen on herself. Her heart sinks when she realizes that she doesn't even remember how he had proposed to her, why he had chosen to do so in Italy, what they were doing in Italy at the first place and most importantly, what made him decide that he wants to spend his eternity with her and what made her said yes to such a romantic notion. It's more than clear to her that she was happy and was completely and madly in love with the Original and he obviously felt the same, the pictures proved just that but everything felt surreal, like it was some kind of a really unbelievable dream that you could wake up from any second and it'll break your heart when you realizes that it was just a dream, that none of it was real and you're still stuck living a painful reality.

The girl stared at the picture for a while and a wave of sadness runs through her. She was happy – _they_ were happy, how could anyone took that from them? How could Esther take that from Elijah? She's his mother, shouldn't she want her son to be happy? Elijah's not Klaus or Kol or Rebekah, he's remorseful for what he did, he doesn't kill people just because he likes it, he does it to protect his family, the people he cares about, it is not fair to punish him for what he is instead of who he is. He didn't even ask to be a monster, Esther herself did that and now she wants to ruin her children for what she herself did to them? How could she?

"Is everything alright?" Elijah's soothing voice float through the kitchen, affectively snapping Caroline out of the emotions that was threatening to overwhelmed her.

"Um, yeah!" She smiled at him.

The older man didn't look very convinced but he didn't push her. Instead, he choose to casually slip onto a stool next to her.

"Here," Caroline slide her phone to him where her Instagram page was currently on the screen. "Look through our history," she said and then hopped off the stool and headed to the microwave where she pulled out the mugs of blood. She put one in front of Elijah and took a drink from the other one before she filled another two mugs with freshly brewed coffee and repeated her earlier action. Once done, she slipped back next to Elijah and started on her breakfast that was in front of her on the marble kitchen counter.

Caroline slowly enjoyed her food – the human and the vampire kind – while at the same time watching Elijah who's face remained stoic as he go through the many pictures of them on Caroline's Instagram. She couldn't help but to wonder what he was thinking about. It was hard to guess seeing as the Original had his stoic face so mastered, he might as well copyrighted it.

After a while, Elijah carefully slipped phone back to Caroline and turned to the breakfast that had been laid in front of him. There's a plate of pancake, bacon and eggs, a mug of warm blood and a freshly brewed coffee prepared by the girl for him. In that moment, he couldn't help feeling a slight tug in his heart at the kind treatment she was giving him.

When was the last time anyone, especially a girl, prepared a breakfast for him? Unless they're Niklaus' compelled human servants or Rebekah, Elijah couldn't remember of such time where such occurrences had occurred. Even back when he was in a steady relationship with Katherine, the girl had never, not even once, made an effort to do such thing for him. In fact, Elijah is pretty sure he had never been with a woman who made him breakfast or dinner, or anything domesticated as Caroline did for him. All of his past relationships had been filled with raw unadultered passion, angst and lust, he had never once knew what a simple, human relationship felt like. It seemed mundane of him to want all of those things in the past – especially not with the kind of woman he had been with – but now, as he sat next to the baby vampire who's stuffing her mouth with pancakes and staring at him with those ocean blue eyes of hers, Elijah couldn't stop himself from wanting this simple, domesticated human relationship with a girl who smiles reminds him of a thousand sunrise.

He wanted this, God, he wanted this with her so bad that it scares the bloody hell out of him.

"What? What's wrong? Something on my face?" Caroline asked in alarmed after Elijah stared at her without blinking for a minute or so. God, she hoped she didn't get any food stuck on her teeth because that would be embarrassing.

Elijah shook his head and smile. "Everything is perfect, Caroline. Absolutely perfect."

Caroline eyed him weirdly for a moment before grinning excitedly at him. "So, how do you feel about getting almost two thousand likes on that picture of you sleeping soundly on a bed in Greece?"

The older vampire let out a small unsatisfied grunt before he drank the blood that had been prepared for him. "I do not see the appeal of posting pictures on this social media page and vying for 'likes'. What good does 'liking' ones picture do to a society other than creating this constant need for attention and validation from others? I simply do not understand the antics of this generation of yours."

Caroline couldn't help but to grin at the man. God, does he have idea just how old he sounded like just now? "Well, what are you, like a billion years old or so? Of course you don't understand the antics of this young generation, old man."

The Original was not amused at being called an 'old man' which instantly made his companion laugh.

"No worries," she patted his back, "you're a smokingly hot old man." Caroline stopped talking for a while to re-think her words. "That somehow didn't sound right."

It's Elijah's turn to laugh at her. His chest had been feeling lighter and lighter ever since he came to wake up next to Caroline Forbes yesterday morning. She somehow had managed to make him laugh more times in the course of a few hours than anybody else managed to do so in a century! He could see it now, why Niklaus was so entranced by her. She's a force of nature that keeps on giving and giving without consciously knowing that she was giving at all. It was all just so natural for her that she can make even the unhappiest of man smiling without meaning to do so. That was what she gave Niklaus and now, what she gave Elijah, a sense of blissful happiness.

"So what should we do now?" The blonde asked once they were back to casually enjoying their breakfast. "I know we agreed to leave for New Orleans but we can't just leave New York all of a sudden and drop everything else behind. We have a life here, Elijah. It just doesn't feel right to leave it hanging." Yes, this might be one of her attempt to stall their plans but that doesn't mean it wasn't a valid reason to stay in New York for a little while longer.

Elijah silently nodded in agreement with her. They can't just drop everything off and leave. Someone might try to find them and they might get caught in the crossroad of the supernatural nature of Caroline's and Elijah's life and despite not having any memories of living this life, Elijah do not wish anyone from their missing past to get hurt because of them. It is too risky to leave things unresolved.

"I supposed we could spend the whole day tying up our loose end. New Orleans would still be there once we're done." Yes, Elijah is totally trying to stall their original plan to head back to New Orleans today. The later they have to deal with Niklaus' ensure rage, the better.

Caroline didn't think a lot of it and nodded in agreement.

The two of them finishes up their breakfast before they made a plan on how exactly are they going to tie up their loose ends. Caroline love that fact that like her, Elijah also finds the need to make a solid plan before he does anything. Unlike the rest of his family members, Elijah believes in the art of strategizing and having a clear view of what their next move is, he had even become a master at it after centuries of plotting against his brother – something he could see that the younger vampire truly appreciated and that on itself, managed to do wondrous thing to his undead heart.

Near noon, the paired had left their home to tie up all the loose end. Instead of taking the cab like they did yesterday, Elijah decided that they should use their car instead. He remembered Caroline telling him that he had given her a Mini Cooper last week which means that they both must have their own means of transportation. The two of them headed for the parking lot where they found Caroline's Mini and Elijah's sleek new Mercedes. They took the Mercedes because the Original refused to be seen driving around a Mini.

Their first stop of the day was Elijah's firm. He uses the GPS in his car to find where it was and drove straight towards the place. When they arrived at the 28th floor where his office was at, they wasn't that surprised to see the bustling workers, some in their cubicles, some walking around the floor, trying to do their job. It was a Monday after all and things are always slightly chaotic on a Monday no matter where you live at. Monday just have that affect on people, especially metropolitan working people.

Elijah had called for his assistant, Marissa, a fiery redhead who seemed to worship Caroline – the Original had a sneaky suspicion that's why Marissa had gotten the job as Elijah's assistant at the first place – and asked for her to bring coffee to his private office. When she was inside, Caroline guarded the door as he had compelled the girl to give him all the information he needed about the law firm and his new job. Once he had gotten all the information, Elijah had to work double time to compel his co-workers, partners and assistant alike, to think that he is taking a vacation for a while and handed all of his cases to other partner in the firm until further notice. To ensure the firm's continue success, Elijah decided to hire a few big name lawyers to work for his law firm, spending as much money as he had to so they would accept the job. He even put one of his vampire to look out for his firm and to contact him if anything happens.

He surprises even himself at how much the firm actually meant to him. The Original may not remember actually building the company up from the ground but he felt a strong emotional connection to it and the thought of leaving it just like that doesn't sit right with him. He couldn't explain why it meant a lot to him but it did and he hoped that one day, he could go back to his job, his work and his life. After he gets his memories that is and he will get it, even if he has to kill his mother and his brothers a thousand times repeatedly, he will get what has been taken away from him.

Elijah offered to help compelled Caroline's boss and co-workers when they arrived at her small office that was hardly anything like Elijah's but she declined, saying that it might be better for everyone if she simply resigned. Unlike the older Vampire, Caroline does not own the company she's working for and it is unfair for her to keep the position when she doesn't even know if she'll ever come back again. The blonde spend a few minute in her homey office, writing a resignation letter that was affective immediately before handing it to her boss.

The wonderful woman, Lara, didn't understand why Caroline was resigning all of the sudden, even offering her a position as a Senior Planner at the company but she had to decline. She explained to Lara that she had to follow Elijah back to his hometown because of a family emergency and doesn't know how long it will take which is why she had to give up her position at the company. It breaks Caroline's heart to do so, even without any memory of actually working for Lara, it still saddens her to have to let go of her career but it was for the best. Lara had completely understood her position, since she herself are married with two children – she even joked that even she would give up her career if she had Elijah as a husband – and told Caroline that she would always have a job with her whenever she wants it.

Caroline was truly grateful for the offer and promised to keep in touch with Lara. After that, she said her final goodbye to all of her co-workers, including her new best friends, Serena who's also a planner at the firm. Elijah helped her pack all of her stuff before they left and head back to the apartment.

By the time they arrived home, it was already night so Caroline called for a pizza delivery and they ate their dinner quietly, almost solemnly at the living room with the hush sound of the television playing in the background. They stayed that way for a little while before they cleaned up the place and decided to call it a day. Caroline was about to head upstairs to their room when she remembered about Elijah's sleeping arrangement.

"Uh, Elijah."

The Original who's putting away the leftover pizza in the fridge, turn to look at her.

"You can sleep with me if you want to. Not that I'm asking you to sleep, _sleep_ with me, I'm saying that we can share a bed together and sleep, just sleep, on the bed, together." She finished rather lamely.

Elijah let out a low chuckled. "I understand what you mean, Caroline, rest assured. I will join you once I'm done here."

"Cool. Uh, see you upstairs." The blonde quickly headed for the bedroom.

Caroline took the opportunity to change into a blue pajama pants and a plain white t-shirt while she was alone in the room and get ready for bed. Once she's done, she slipped under the covers and closed her eyes, not yet sleeping but willing herself to do so. She kept her eyes shut when she heard Elijah walks in and prepared for bed himself. When she felt the bed dip and Elijah slipped next to her on the bed, instead of feeling awkward and scared, she felt secured and safe, as if the Original sleeping next to her was something of a normal occurrences, so much that she fell soundly asleep listening to his even and calm breathing.

* * *

 **A/N:** Spoiler for next chapter – Newlywed Mr. and Mrs. Mikaelson will finally confront the rest of the Mikaelson clan in the Big Easy so watch out for that.


	6. Chapter 6

**A/N:** Olla my beautiful and wonderful readers! I'm back, with a new chapter for all of you spectacular people. The last chapter I posted got so many love from all of you so thank you very much to all of you that follow this story, left a review for it and just, reading it. It means so much to me. And, as promise, Carlijah will finally come face to face with Klaus and the family for the first time so I put a little sprinkle of Klaroline in there for all of you Klaroline fans which I hope will be able to make you happy. So yeah, hope you guys enjoy the new chapter and don't forget to leave a review. Bye!

*English is not my first language so I do apologize for the grammar or spelling mistake I made*

 **Disclaimer:** I do not own any of these TVD/TO characters.

* * *

 **CHAPTER FIVE**

 **CAROLINE** had always wanted to travel to New Orleans ever since she was a little girl. She used to listened to her father's story about the city – he had spent a lot of his time there when he was younger – and little girl Caroline just couldn't wait to grow up and be able to travel to the Big Easy with her best friend, Bonnie and Elena. By freshman year, she already had plans to go on a trip to New Orleans with Bonnie and Elena the summer before college, with a completely plan travel itinerary, of course. But then right before graduation, Klaus and Co. decided to move back to their "kingdom" and suddenly that place moved to the top of her 'PLACES TO NOT GO' list. Till this very day, Caroline still couldn't help resenting Klaus for deciding to move to New Orleans – why can't he move to like, the middle of the Amazon instead – and causing her to stay away from that city.

None of that matters now though, seeing as she's heading to the very place she had promised to herself to never enter unless it's a matter of life and death, with Elijah Mikaelson of all people. Oh, how things have completely, and utterly change.

The two of them had landed at New Orleans Lakefront Airport in Elijah's private jet that actually belongs to the Mikaelson – the blonde had rolled her eyes and shook her head when she sees the jet that was waiting for them in New York – a few minutes ago. Once landed, she was not surprised to see a vampire waiting for them with a black Mercedes that looked way too familiar to the ones they'd left behind. The vampire helped put their stuff – mainly Caroline's – into the car and then helped opening the door for her – apparently Elijah's minion are as much of a gentleman as Elijah is, good to know. Caroline gave the minion a small smile before sliding onto the passenger's seat and waited for the two men to finish their private conversation outside.

The blonde could try to listen to the exchange between the Original and his minion but she decided against it and simply waited it out. So far, Elijah had been nothing but sweet, kind and respectful to her – even this morning when Caroline woke up with dark circles under her eyes and hair that resembles a freaking lion, Elijah simply gave her one of his adoring smile that makes her forget her own name and went straight to prepare the breakfast – so Caroline doesn't see the need to spy on his private conversation. If Elijah wants her to know it, he'll tell her, if not, it's okay too because she trust him completely, something she had never thought she'd feel for any of the Mikaelsons.

After a few minutes passed, Elijah gracefully slipped into the driver's seat and effortlessly drove the car away from the airport. Despite her hatred for silence, Caroline had found the one filling the car right then rather welcoming. Her nerves are going haywire by just thinking about meeting Elijah's family which is stupid considering she had met all of them one way or another – except for Mikael, she thankfully had not crossed path with him. But then again, all of them had tried to kill her and her friends – directly or indirectly – at least once so it made sense for her to be anxious. Except, she's not really anxious about meeting his family, more like a certain brother of his that had once told her he'd be her last love.

Truth to be told, Caroline was afraid – no, she's freaking terrified of seeing Klaus again, of watching his reaction when he finds out about her and Elijah. Klaus doesn't take too well betrayal and well, this is a big fat gigantic betrayal, on Elijah's part at the very least. Klaus can't exactly say she's betraying him because they were never… anything. He wasn't her boyfriend, she wasn't his. The same way she has no right to be upset that he'd slept with Hayley and knocked her up, is the same way Klaus has no right to be upset with her for marrying his brother – they can't even remember how it happened, it shouldn't be any of Klaus' business either way! Knowing Klaus though, that probably didn't matter. He would still go crazy and put a stake through her heart.

Sadly, a stake through the heart is not what terrifies Caroline the most.

What truly terrifies her is the possibility of seeing the hurt in Klaus' eyes when he finds out the truth. She could take the anger, she could take the hatred – she had dealt with that way too many time, it hardly affects her anymore – what she can't, however, is seeing the raw emotions, the painful pang and the aching betrayal in his blue eyes when he finds out about her and Elijah. That vulnerability, that hurt look in his eyes, will surely haunt her for the rest of her life and she can't have that on her soul. Add to the fact that she knows it will put another strain in Elijah's and Klaus' already rocky relationship, the baby vampire couldn't help but feeling like a horrible person.

Caroline let out a deep breath before she turned to look at the Original sitting next to her. Though Elijah's focus seemed to be on the road, Caroline could see how his mind was also spinning around thoughts and feelings he's used to ignore or masked. She can't imagine what he must be going through. He has to think about their memory lost, finding who took them and how to get them back, their marriage and how to break it to his family and on top of that, the Original also have crazy comeback-from-death family drama to think about. Dread filled her heart when she realizes just how much of a burden she must be to the older vampire.

"I'm sorry," her voice was small and sad and it made Elijah look at her from the tail of his eyes.

"What are you apologizing for, Caroline?"

"Nothing..." Caroline stopped and took a deep breath, "Everything! I don't know. I'm just sorry that this happens to us, to you. I'm hardly any of your concern, you have far more important matters to deal with but instead you're here, stuck with me."

"If anyone is stuck with anybody, it is you to me, Caroline. I am positively certain that this happens because of me, not the other way around. You have nothing to apologize for."

Caroline let out a thin smile. She guesses it's true what everyone keep saying, Elijah is the best of the Originals, if not the best kind of guy you'll find out there. He took the blame for things that may or not be his fault, he's calm and collected about dealing with things that most people – i.e. Caroline – would panic over and he took responsibility of the things he'd done, even if he can't remembers doing them. Elijah is a good man through and through, Caroline wonders why she never saw that about him when they were all still huddled in that deadly small town she called home.

"How do you think your family will react when they find out about us?" The baby vampire asked but before the Original could answer; she instantly started to ramble in growing panic. "How do you think Klaus will react when he finds out about us? Oh, God! What if he daggers you again and put you in a coffin and then threw you in the middle of the Pacific Ocean? You'll be swimming with whales and sharks and God knows what else is down there – what if a whale swallows you like in that children's story and everyone hates me because I'm the reason you got eaten by a whale?" The blonde big round eyes found Elijah who couldn't help the huge smile that was forming on his face. "What are you smiling at? I'm having a total nerves breakdown and you're smiling?" Caroline doesn't know if she wants to be angry or cry at Elijah's reaction.

Fondness filled the Original's eyes as he smiled at the girl who was more worried about his safety – him, Elijah Mikaelson the un-killable Original vampire – instead of herself, a baby vampire who's death will be certain just by a simply stake through the heart. "I don't see how anybody can hate someone who cares for others more than she does herself."

The baby vampire turned away from Elijah and throws her sight out to the scenery that passed the window of their moving car. "How do you know that I care so much about other people? We never talk when you were in Mystic Falls; we're not even friends, Elijah. You don't know who I am and I don't know who you are. How can you say that if you don't even know me?"

"I don't need to know who you were in the past; I simply need to see the person that sits right next to me, the girl who is more worried about me being swallowed by a whale instead of my brother putting a stake through her heart." The affection in Elijah's voice and the way he looked at her made Caroline smile like an idiot. Damn him for being so good with his words!

"Katherine's right, you know. Behind all of that restraint man in a suit, you're actually a really sweet guy who always knows what to say to make a girl smile."

If Elijah was affected by the mention of his former lover, he didn't show it. "She talks about me?" He simply inquires like Caroline hadn't said the name of someone whose death still haunts him day and night.

"Yeah. When Silas had gotten what he wanted from her and she had nowhere else to stay, she ends up staying at the dorm, pretending to be Elena for a little while. One night, she became particularly chatty about her past lovers – and when I say chatty, I meant, gory, vivid detail kinda chatty – and she ends up talking about you, _all_ of you. That was fun."

Elijah chuckled. "That does sounds like Katerina."

"Why didn't you come back to Mystic Falls with Klaus and Rebekah when Katherine was dying?" The question had been nagging on the back of her mind since she finds out Rebekah was also there that eventful day. She'd actually like Katherine back then and couldn't help but wonder why Elijah never came to bid her goodbye when he was the one who truly did love that manipulating doppelganger throughout her best and her worst. She even felt sorry for Katherine for it.

When Caroline looked at Elijah, she was stunned to see a pained expression on his face that he was trying so hard to hide. It made her feel bad for asking such question. "I'm sorry, I shouldn't pry. It's none of my business. Your past is yours, nothing to do with me. Don't answer that question, just ignore it. I'm just being nosy, as per usual. Just leave it at that." She doesn't want Elijah to answer anything he doesn't want to. If it was her, she wouldn't be happy about it either, a stranger trying to poke their noses where it does not belong.

The rest of the car ride was rather awkward after that and Caroline cursed herself for letting her mouth run. Why did she had to run her big mouth and asked that stupid question? Why can't she just leave the moment as it is? It was a good moment, a perfect one really and what did she do next? She talked and ruined it. Can't believe she's thinking about this but Damon was right, she talks way too much.

They drove in silence for what feels like forever before the car stopped in front of a building that looks like it had been there for quite some time now. Caroline turned to look at Elijah who was turning the car's engine off. Once that is done, he looked at Caroline and as if he could feel the hard pounding of her unbeaten heart, his hand reach for hers, engulfing it with warmth and tenderness none would expect from one of the world's oldest vampire. "Caroline, I need you to trust me when I say, no one, not even my family, will be able to hurt you. I will not stand for it, you have my word."

Caroline let out a nervous laugh. "Pretty sure your word hardly means anything when you're an Original, ask Elena." She's only half joking.

Elijah let out a strained smile. Suddenly he was reminded of all the times he had failed the Gilbert girl who's compassion never ceased to amaze him. He had always thought that there was nobody else that could be as compassionate as Elena Gilbert out there in the world but he was wrong. Since the day he woke up next to her, Caroline had been nothing but kind, patient, understanding and accepting towards him. And yes, Elijah is not blind enough to see that the girl has some flaws that one may not see from Elena Gilbert but even then, she is everything and more than Elena can ever be and Elijah vowed to himself that he will never let anything happens to Caroline. He'd fail one incredible girl already; he refuses to do the same again.

Absentmindedly, the Original's hand reached for Caroline's face – despite all the warning in his head – and he cradled one side of the blonde's face, catching her attention. His thumbs unconsciously started tracing soothing circle against her cheek. "I vow to you now, Caroline that as long as we are bound together by the sanctity of marriage, I will always, through heaven and hell, defend your honor, protect you from bodily harm and I will always put you, above everything else. You have my word." Elijah is an old fashion man after all, he believes in the purity of marriage, of the sacred vows that bind two souls together. There is no bind more stronger between two strangers than a holy matrimonial of two hearts. It matters not that he does not remember how it happens, none of it matters as far as he's concerned because the wedding band on their fingers is a prove of their nuptial, a prove of their love and Elijah would be damn before he broke that vow. He was raised better than that.

Caroline leaned into his rough and warm feeling of his hand on her cheek. The skin-to-skin contact sends pleasant shivers down her stomach that she couldn't help feeling slightly giddy despite the situation. Being married to Elijah is not as bad as she would have imagined it to be. He's respectful, sweet, kind and he looks drop dead gorgeous, she could definitely do worse – she could wake up next to a naked Damon and was married to him and that would have been a pure nightmare but instead she got hot, manner-ful Elijah. Yup, she definitely could do worst!

After taking a few deep breaths, Caroline straighten herself up and smile up at him. "Let's do this!" She beamed.

She was about to hopped out of the car when Elijah caught her waist easily and pulled her back inside. "Patience, dear Caroline." The blonde let out a small huff which made him laugh. "There are things we need to discuss before we face my brother."

Caroline stared up at the older man who was leaning down on her, one of his arm wrapped firmly around her waist, another one pressed against her seat for balanced while his large body looming closely over hers. She gulped. "Um… ok."

"First of all, I think it is for the best if you leave all the talking to me." Elijah had noticed that Caroline tends to let her mouth run off at the speed of a bullet train which he found absolutely endearing but would probably get them into more trouble than they're already are at the moment and he, for once, does not need more problem on his hands which is why it is better if he did all the talking.

The baby vampire simply nodded, still unable to focus on anything else other than the older vampire's mesmerizing eyes and his body against hers.

"And you are going to stay close to me at all times, do you understand?"

"Like right now?" She pointed out.

Elijah's eyebrows furrowed and he looked down at their bodies. It was then did he realizes their position and for the first time in many, many years, he felt flushed and embarrassed, like a teenage boy facing his crush. He still though, managed to keep a calm face on and gracefully pulled his arm away from Caroline's waist and straightens himself in his seat.

"Um…" Caroline awkwardly smooth down the white flowery tank top she's wearing. "So… you do the talking and I stay by your side. Got it."

Silence stretch a few more second in the car before Elijah turned to look at Caroline. "Are you ready?"

"As ready as someone who's about to get eaten alive by a hungry wolf ever be."

Elijah let out a smooth chuckled as they both slipped out of the car. When they both stood in front of the compound, he reached for the blonde's arm and draped it around his. They both stared into each other's eyes one last time for courage before they both made their way inside, arm in arm.

* * *

 **THE** first thing Elijah realizes when he set his foot inside the compound with Caroline's arm looped around his, was the fact that there was more vampires guarding the place than there was three months ago. They were all tensed and when they saw Elijah walks in, they almost attacked but stopped abruptly when they saw that it was him. For the look of it, the situation in New Orleans are a lot more tensed then it was before Elijah left, something that worries the eldest Mikaelson and send him feeling slightly on edge. Maybe coming back here wasn't a great idea after all.

One of the vampires guarding the compound ran upstairs when he saw Elijah to fetch his brother causing for both he and Caroline to tense ever so slightly while they waited for the inevitable confrontation with Klaus. None of them were ready for any of it but since they might needed Klaus' help if they want to figure out what had happened to them, might as well just get it over with right away.

The seconds that went by completely silent did not help the nerves that was gnawing at Caroline's gut at all and she had a faint feeling like she's going to puke out the contents of her stomach. The only thing that's keeping her foot firmly on the floor was Elijah's firm body pressed against her side and his strong arm she's holding on to like a lifeline. There was no way in hell she would be here in New Orleans, inside of Klaus' home if it wasn't for Elijah. She'd rather take a stake to the heart, thank you very much.

A few more seconds of tensed silence passed before Klaus came vamping down the stairs, with Hayley – who's holding Hope in her arms – and two unfamiliar woman following suit, at a human pace. Questions and wonders went through his head – who are the two strangers with Hayley and Klaus, why is Hope here in New Orleans, where's Rebekah – but Elijah pushed it to the side and focuses on the situation he had in hand. There'll be time for answers later, now he needs to face his brother and Hayley. God, he needs to face his brother and Hayley. Is this his punishment for all the evil he had done in the name of protecting their family?

The look of pure relief and small happiness Niklaus wore when he saw Elijah made the older Mikaelson's dead heart warmed with love again. After he had spend centuries by Niklaus' side, Elijah had honestly came to a point where he'd almost given up on his brother, thinking that he would never again see the brother he once knew. He was glad he didn't because Elijah could see him now, the brother he had lost to the cruelty of their circumstances and fate, looking directly at him with those tortured blue eyes of his.

Sadly, the relief and happiness in his brother's eyes only stayed there for a flash of a second. It instantly turned confused and cold when Niklaus' eyes landed on Elijah's blonde companion.

"Caroline?" His voice was raw with bewilderment and emotions that Elijah knew his brother never allowed himself to have, not until Caroline.

Caroline and Klaus stared at each other for what feels like an eternity before Klaus' eyes caught a sight of the baby vampire's arm looped around his brother's, almost naturally as if it was where it belongs all along and the hybrid suddenly had a strange feeling as if he was the third-wheel interrupting on a private moment between a pair of lovers. His anger flared.

Elijah felt Caroline flinched next to him when she caught the way his brother was staring heatedly and accusingly at the way her arm looped around his. "Brother," the older Original spoke in attempt to divert Klaus' attention from the girl. "We have much to discuss."

The younger Mikaelson looked at him and his face twisted to the hybrid everyone know and fear. "You vanish from the face of the earth for three months only to come back with Caroline in your arms and that's the first thing you say to me, Elijah?"

Elijah simply let out a deep sigh. He could already feel the lines appearing on his forehead. "It is…" the Original look at Caroline, "complicated, Niklaus."

Klaus was about to say something more – something cruel, twisted and accusingly from the looks of it – but was cut off by the dark skinned girl who for whatever reason, ran straight to Elijah and wrapped her hands around his neck. Caroline tried to ignore the jealousy swirling in her stomach.

"Oh, Elijah! I'm so glad you are fine. Nik and I thought mother had done something awful to you." The girl said with an accent that somewhat sound familiar to both of them.

When the girl pulled away from him, Elijah stared down at her. His eyes widened once the realization hit him. "Rebekah?"

The girl smiled and nodded at Elijah.

"How?" The older Original asked, slightly perplex by the knowledge that his sister is in a different body, a human one it seems. "Did mother…?"

His sister simply smile and shook her head. "Let's not talk about it now. We have more pressing matters to discuss." Her smile turns venom when she turned to look at Caroline who had let go of Elijah's arm but still stayed close to his side. "What the hell are you doing here with my brother? Did your Mystic Falls band of delinquents do something to Elijah? Oh, so help me God, if I find out you're the reason why Elijah had been missing for three months; I will end all of you."

Despite her earlier agreement to let Elijah do all the talking, Caroline just couldn't help herself. Rebekah, no matter in what body, just brings out the worst of her. "Excuse me, like I have the time to be bother by you people. I have a life, thank you very much. The only reason why I'm here is because I have to."

The no-longer blonde or an Original, glared at Caroline before she turned to face Elijah. "What the bloody hell is Ms. Goodie-Two-Shoes doing here, Elijah?" She crossed her arms against her chest and stared at her older brother, waiting for his answer.

Rebekah glared at Elijah, demanding for him to explain himself. When Elijah gave her an _I'm-your-older-brother-so-do-not-question-me-young-lady_ look, she take to glaring at Caroline instead. A glint from Caroline's hand caught her eyes and she stared hard at the heart-shaped diamond ring and the gold band that looked like a wedding ring on the girl's ring finger. She turned to look at Elijah's and imagine her surprise when she saw the gold wedding band that is similar to the one Caroline had on his ring finger. Many possibilities swirl inside of the youngest Mikaelson's head until one of them slammed her straight in the face. "You're married!"

Rebekah's shriek filled the whole room, causing the whole world around them to quiet down and stopped all together, at least that's what it felt like for Caroline.

Okay, this was not how they plan on handling this situation. Caroline knew Elijah wanted to break into the news slowly and peacefully so no one would get hurt in the process but of course, leave it to his sister to ruin everything. Ugh! See why Caroline dislike Rebekah so much?

Elijah could feel the dread creeping inside of him once Rebekah exclaimed those words out. He honestly was not expecting for his sister to be there as well when he came back home nor did he anticipated her to caught a sight of their wedding rings that quickly. It was rather dim of him not to, Rebekah had always been the most observant and perceptive of them all – he blamed it on her being a woman – so naturally she would be the first one to put two and two together. He should've prepared himself for all worst case scenarios possible.

Before Elijah could ponder further on his stupidity, he felt a force pushing him away from Caroline and in mere seconds, his back had crashed into a wall so hard, it cracked within impact.

"What is the meaning of this, Elijah?" Klaus growled in his face, eyes turning yellow in anger as his arm pressed on Elijah's neck, making it slightly hard for the older Mikaelson to breathe. Good thing, he's a vampire that doesn't need air to survive then.

"Niklaus…" The older Mikaelson tried to reason with his brother. "This is not the time..."

Klaus growled. "Oh, this is exactly the time for you to tell me how you left me when I needed you the most and came back married to the girl I…"

"The girl you what, Niklaus?" Elijah challenged his brother, his rage slowly building up. He doesn't know why but the image of Niklaus and Caroline together makes him wants to shove someone's head through a brick wall.

Klaus turned his eyes away, refusing to fell prey to his own emotions in front of all of these people. "It doesn't matter who she is to me. You're my brother, I needed you and you left!"

Elijah let out a deep sigh. This, he could not be upset with Niklaus for being angry about because he did, as matter of fact, left. He couldn't justify his action, he can't even try to explain himself because he can't remember what he is supposed to be explaining and that frustrates the Original more than anything. "I wish I could give you a solid reason as to why I was gone, I really do, Niklaus, but I'm afraid I simply just do not remember why."

"What do you mean you don't remember?" The hybrid growled in confusion.

"Caroline and I, we have absolutely no recollections of what had occurred between us for the past three months. The last thing either of us remembered was drinking in a bar near Whitmore College. Everything else is a mystery up to a few days ago."

Klaus turned to look at Caroline. "Is this true?"

The girl looked somewhat offended that Klaus would even ask her for conformation. It made the fire he had always love inside of her roared. "Of course, Klaus! Did you really think you're important enough for me to halt three months of my life just so I could marry your brother and rub it all over your face?" He didn't have to say it; Caroline knew exactly what he was thinking. That's just who Klaus is, a pompous ass who thinks everything has to be about him. "I have a life, plans, future, things that I want and none of them involves you," she spat the words she had once said what felt like ages ago somewhere in the woods of Mystic Falls, "or your family." Caroline knew it was a low blow but she couldn't help it. Klaus always brings out the worst of her, just like his sister, apparently. The only Mikaelson that doesn't drive her mad is Elijah it seems.

"And still, you marry one of us," Rebekah murmured which gained her dirty looks from both Klaus and Caroline.

"How about we discuss this like normal people?" Hayley, who everyone almost forget was in the room, said. Caroline turned to look at the she-wolf. She felt her stomach fell at the sight of her holding a beautiful baby girl in pink jumper in her arms. Till this very day, she still haven't gotten her head around the fact that Klaus and Hayley had a baby together but now, seeing the product of their one night stand right in front of her eyes, made it all seems all too real, too raw. It was like a painful reminder of all the things she could never have and it hurts, more than she would like to admit.

"Yes, Niklaus. We can't afford to break now that Dahlia is coming for Hope," the girl with the long blonde hair spoke for the first time, catching everyone's attention.

Klaus let out a growled but he let go of Elijah who gracefully straighten his dark suit like nothing had happened before taking his place next to Caroline. "And who is this girl you have with us, Niklaus?" Elijah would have thought Klaus would be wise enough not to let outsider into the private matters of their family but then again, it's Klaus we're talking about and Elijah had given up trying to understand how his brother's mind works.

"Elijah, meet Freya, our presumably dead big sister. Freya, meet Elijah, our presumably missing brother." Klaus said.

Caroline gapped at Freya. "How many dead siblings do you guys have?" She asked to no one in particular.

Rebekah let out a deep sigh. "By now, even I'm not sure."

"It seems that we have a lot to discuss about after all, Niklaus. May I propose we do this over dinner? Caroline and I have been travelling for the better part of the day and we are both exceptionally drained, as I am sure you can understand. Let us all retreat to get our baring and discuss matters of importance tonight over food and wine." The older Original suggested, knowing that they all need time to clear their heads off before they could continue the discussion like civilize beings and what better ways to do it over food, wine and a little bit of blood?

"Very well," much to everyone's surprise, Klaus agrees to the suggestion.

"Should I ask the servants to prepare your room, Elijah? And maybe one for Caroline?" Rebekah asked.

"No need for such thing, sister. I have already asked Josh to prepare my place in Algiers." Elijah explained and when he saw they were all still wondering the question about Caroline, he simply took the baby vampire's hand, leaving no room for objection from any of his siblings. "We'll bring some wine." He announced and started walking away from the room. The two of them left side by side, with the rest of the Mikaelson's clan watching them walked away.

Klaus immediately left for his room after Elijah and Caroline was no longer in sight – fuming and brimming with anger, hurt and confusion that he doubt no amount of alcohol will be able to heal but he was going to try anyways – and was followed soon after by Freya who probably went back to her grimoire to find a way to defeat their beloved aunt, Dahlia, leaving only Hayley with Hope and Rebekah left in the courtyard.

"This is not gonna end well, does it?" Hayley asked.

"Not a chance." Rebekah answered before looking at her weird quasi sister-in-law. "You should leave Hope with Jackson's grandmother tonight and come to dinner. This involves you too." Rebekah knows all about Hayley's and Elijah's feelings for one and another and since Hayley is practically a Mikaelson now, she should be at the family event. Of course, none of the whole Elijah and Hayley thing matters now seeing as Hayley had decided to marry Jackson, the werewolf while Elijah was gone and Elijah is apparently married to Caroline, of all people, who's Klaus certainly still have feelings for. God, if this does not sound like a disaster, Rebekah doesn't know what does.

* * *

 **A/N:** Next chapter, Marcel, family dinner, angst and maybe a little bit of an almost-kiss.


	7. Chapter 7

First things first, DO NOT throw rocks at me. I am terribly, terribly sorry for not updating this fic for a long, long time. I got caught up with life and work and then my computer bail on me and went crash and burn – metaphorically – which cause everything I've wrote to become history and then I didn't have any time to write again and yeah… but thank you for all the comments you guys left me because it's what motivated me to write again so yeah, here we are. I hope you enjoy this chapter and have fun!

* * *

 **CHAPTER SIX**

 **ONE** look around the loft where she and Elijah would be living in for the unforeseeable future told Caroline that the Original had not been thinking too much about it when he moved in. The place felt almost empty, as if when he moved in, he just decided to put whatever necessary furniture in and be done with it. It's neat and clean, everything is in place but its kinda lack of homey feeling to it, unlike their house back in New York. Elijah told her that he had the loft prepared for whenever he needs some space away from his siblings which kind of explain as to why the place is the way it is.

She had to admit it though, she was not expecting for Elijah to lead her to a loft. It seems more of a Klaus' thing than Elijah's – a loft just feels bachelor-ish and urban, totally Klaus' style – but then again, she doesn't really know Elijah well enough – he is more of a mystery to her than any of his other siblings, sans the dead ones and the new revived from the dead one – so she could be wrong and loft is totally Elijah's thing, she simply doesn't know about it.

It bugs Caroline when she realizes how little she knows about Elijah. For some reason it pricks at her and she wants to know more about the man who's currently in the bathroom, freshening up.

Elijah had let Caroline use the bathroom first and when she's done, she saw that the Original had freed some space for Caroline to use. He told her to unpack her stuff and that she can put her things in the space he'd free for her and to use his stuff if needed – what's his are hers and all of that. She appreciates it, of course. It made putting her undergarments in a dresser that belongs to him less awkward.

When Elijah stepped out of the bathroom, he was in yet another suit and despite already getting used to the Original's fashion sense, she still couldn't help admiring how good he looked. If there's one person on this planet earth that can rock a gentleman's suit whistle conducting a murder, it'd be Elijah. Even the Salvatore can't beat him and they are gorgeous – something she would never out rightly admitted, not to anyone, especially not to Damon.

Elijah smiled when he saw Caroline looking at his way before he makes his way towards where she was seated, on a dark grey sofa he had in the living room.

"Have you finish unpacking?" Elijah asked as he watched her rummaging through the Birkin that she had refused to leave in New York. "I could free more space for you if you need them," he offered. It's not like he had that much stuff to fill the space anyway. Caroline could use it all if she wants to. He didn't mind it, in fact, the thought of her having her own space in his home makes him feel… elated.

"Don't worry, the space is enough… for now." Elijah raised an eyebrow at that which made Caroline laughed. "What? I'm in New Orleans, you seriously didn't expect me to plan out my shopping route already?"

Her statement fished a laughter out of Elijah. "Yes. I forget that girls and shopping are two things you can hardly separate from one and another."

"Something you learn from Rebekah?"

"Her and many others."

It's Caroline's turn to raise an eyebrow at him. "Many others, huh? How many others are we talking about here?"

Elijah think it over for a while. "A few," he opted to answer since he doubt he could recall exactly how many woman he had come acquitted himself with over the many, many years he had been alive.

"A few?" Caroline stammer.

Instead of answering right away, Elijah stood up and head for an antique cabinet where he store all of his alcohol collection. It wasn't as vast as Klaus' but it was sufficient enough for him to enjoy whenever he needed alcohol to numb his mind. "Eternity is a lonely path, Caroline. Sometimes a beautiful woman warming up your bed can put that loneliness at bay." He said as he carried a bottle of his best Scotch – that may or may not be Niklaus' best Scotch – and two glasses back to his seat.

"That sounds like something Klaus would say."

Elijah shrugged. "We are brothers after all." He poured the Scotch into the glasses and handed one to Caroline – which she gladly accepted – and nurse the other one for himself.

"Were Hayley one of those girls?" Caroline asked, looking up from the glass of Scotch she's twirling in one hand.

The Original was quiet for a while, staring deeply into the drink he had in hand before letting out a deep sigh.

"For a little while," he answered.

"What happened?"

"She lost herself after Hope was gone."

"But now Hope's back so…" before Caroline could finish her words, Elijah quickly took her free hand in his, effectively cutting her from the words he knew she was going to say. "Caroline, you do not have to worry about Hayley and I. As long as I wear my ring, I will be completely devoted to you and none other."

Caroline took a deep breath before she looked at Elijah once again. "Isn't that the problem though? We can't remember… us, we don't even know how there was even an us! It's not fair for me to ask you to be faithful to me when your heart belongs to somebody else." It took her by surprise by how much it actually hurts to utter those words to him but she kept a brave face on.

"And what if we proceed to chase the owners of our heart and then suddenly be reminded of our love?" Elijah whispered – hand delicately traced the lines of Caroline's jaw – "What if we remember every word being said," – his dark eyes bores into her soul – "every promise being pledge," – he trails his lips so close to her ear that she can feel his warm breath on her skin – "every love being made," Elijah pulled his head back and stare straight at Caroline's face. There was a pull between them, one neither could explain with words because it simply do not make any sense and yet it is there, always, between them. Elijah had always prided himself to be a cautious man but then he woke up next to Caroline and all that caution went out of the window before he had any say in it. And after a thousand years of always putting his family, always putting Niklaus' need above all else, Elijah finds himself wanting to be reckless and selfish all at once, to take a plunge and simply fall.

As their face grew closer and their hearts grew wilder, the whole world feels like it is slowing down to a point where it does not matter if it was to stop all together because the only thing that seemed to exist was the two of them and no one else. They were so close to being one, so close that if one move, their lips would meet and everything around them would dissolve into nothingness but before they could swim into the depth of their unexplained passion, they were interrupted by none other than Marcel Gerard.

"Elijah!" Marcel suddenly barged into the loft, causing Elijah and Caroline to break away from the spell they were under. The former calmly straighten himself while the later took a huge gulp of the Scotch she had in hand.

Knowing that he must have walked onto something he shouldn't, Marcel simply raised his hands in the air as a sign that he didn't mean to interrupt whatever it is he had interrupted. "I didn't know you have company," he explained to Elijah before offering Caroline a smile which she graciously return it back. In an instant, Marcel finds himself attracted to the girl even if he has no idea who she is. When Rebekah called and told him that Elijah's back, she didn't seemed to mention a certain blonde, blue eyed beauty that can render one's soul with just her glowing smile.

Elijah let out a strained smile as he face his brother's former protégé. "Marcel. How kind of you to drop by." The bitterness in his voice did not go unnoticed by the younger man.

Marcel smiled brashly. "Rebekah told me you're back and I figure I should see how you're doing, if you're even in your own body."

"Yes, fortunately my mother had not gone that far as to put me in some warlock's body or there will be hell to pay."

Marcel smirked at Elijah's word before his eyes once again find the beautiful blonde sitting next to the Original. "I'm Marcel," he offered his hand and his full on Marcellus smile.

Caroline politely shook his hand. "Caroline." She looked at him in the eye and for a moment Marcel was struck by how blue her eyes were. He even momentarily forget that Elijah was in the same room as them which did not go well with the older Mikaelson.

"Yes, Marcel, meet Caroline, my _wife_ ," the Original declared loudly.

His word had the intended purpose because Marcel instantly pulled his hand away from Caroline.

"You left New Orleans to get married?" Marcel stared at Elijah in slight bewilderment. _Well, that was unexpected._

"It is far more complicated than that but essentially, yes."

Marcel eyed Caroline. The more he looked at her, the more she seemed familiar to him. It was as if her presence remind him of a certain blonde bartender Klaus is so very fond of. "I didn't know you were into blondes? Pretty sure that's Klaus' territory."

"I'd beg to differ," Caroline blurted out without meaning to. Both men turned to look at her. "What? He banged Hayley didn't he and she's certainly not blonde." Yup, she is still bitter about that.

"You know Klaus?" Marcel is even more intrigued now.

"Oh, don't I know Klaus!" Caroline snorted.

"Let's just say that Caroline have a history with my siblings, especially Niklaus, back when we used to reside in Mystic Falls." Elijah explained.

"Wait," Marcel snapped at Caroline. "Mystic Falls? You're from Mystic Falls."

"Yup. Born and raised."

The dark haired vampire let out an over dramatic sigh. "We should send Klaus back to Mystic Falls more often because the last time he came back from that town, he couldn't stop smiling for ages!"

Caroline couldn't help but to blush at the mention of Klaus' last visit to her home town which did not go unnoticed by Marcel. The older vampire raised his eyebrow at her reaction. "You don't by any chance know anything about that, do you, Caroline?"

"What? No. I don't. Klaus was back? When? I don't even know he was back," the blonde babble and let out a nervous laugh.

Both men looked at Caroline, not exactly buying her bull. "Are you sure?" Marcel poked. It's just too interesting for him not to.

Elijah knew what Marcel had meant when he said Klaus should go back to Mystic Falls more often. When he came back from his last visit to that tragic small town, Klaus was in a glowing good mood, so much so that there wasn't any crazy tantrum of his for a whole week and considering he's Niklaus, that is a bewildering achievement. Back then, Elijah had thought that it had something to do with Katerina's demise and he was a little bit too grief taken by the news to ponder more about it. Now though, he couldn't help but wonder if his brother's good mood has anything to do with his new wife.

For whatever reason, that thought didn't sit very well with him.

Not wanting to discuss the matter in front of Marcel, Elijah decided to turn the conversation away from that topic. "We are having a Mikaelson dinner tonight and since you are technically a part of the family, you should join us, Marcellus."

Almost all of the Mikaelson's dinner Marcel attended had been very eventful – and murderous – he had no doubt in his mind that this one would be too so obviously he would agree to it. "Sure, why not." Sensing that he wasn't needed there anymore, Marcel decided to take his leave. "I guess I'll see you both tonight."

Elijah waited until Marcel was far enough that he couldn't hear their conversation before asking Caroline the question that is burning on his throat. "Is there something between you and my brother that I need to know about, Caroline?"

The baby vampire only managed to let out a weak smile. "When he came back, well, Tyler left, choosing his revenge over me and I was hurt, vulnerable and lonely and everyone seems to have… someone in their life so when Klaus was there, I kinda fell prey to my own momentarily lack of judgment and sorta, kinda, ended up, you know, slept with him in the woods." She had to admit, it wasn't one of her brightest moment – sleeping with Klaus just open up a can of worms that she doesn't even want to remember anymore – but it wasn't something she regretted either. Embarrassed by it, yeah, but she didn't regret it.

"Do you love my brother?"

Caroline took a second to assess her feelings for Klaus. "I could have," was the only answer to that question. She doesn't actually love Klaus, probably starting to do so but he left before anything real could have develop between them. There were nights where she would lie awake on her bed, wondering what would've happen if Klaus didn't leave, if he would've stayed in Mystic Falls. Maybe she would have fallen for him, maybe they could have something worth fighting for, maybe they could even be happy… but none of that matters now. What she felt for Klaus was only a memory, a lost opportunity that no amount of dwelling over would change the fact that they were simply not meant to be.

"Do you love Hayley?" The blonde asked, slightly afraid of his answer.

"I did," Elijah answered, downing the scotch in hand.

Silence stretch between the two of them, leaving both to tend to the bleeding wounds left by past lovers and past opportunities with alcohol in hand.

After a while, Caroline decided it was time to get up. There's no use to cry over a spilled milk. "I should get ready for tonight."

Elijah softly grab Caroline's hand, stopping her midway of her movement. "Caroline…"

"Yeah?" The younger vampire turned to look at him.

"Though our situation is less than desirable, I am however glad that it was you I woke up to that morning." As he said those words, Elijah realized that he really didn't want anyone it to be anyone else. She made him felt more alive in just a few days being together than a thousand years of living.

Caroline smiled for strangely she felt the same as him. "Me too."

* * *

 **TENSE,** that's the only word Caroline can use to describe the dining room where they were all hurdled up in. There's Klaus at the far end of one side of the table with Rebekah sitting to his left and Hayley sitting to his right. Elijah sat at the other end of the table and Caroline was on his left and Marcel on his right. Freya, the newest addition to the Mikaelson clan was next to Rebekah and an unknown guy who's probably a werewolf – if the wet dog smell is anything to go by – is sitting next to Hayley. Food were served on the table paired with the wine Elijah and Caroline had brought along with them. There was a glass of blood for each and every one of the vampires to enjoy incase the human food wasn't filling their appetite. Despite the lavish setting though, everyone look like they rather be anywhere else but here, except Klaus and Elijah. The earlier was busy glaring at his brother while the later simply took a sip of his wine and savor the taste of it in his mouth.

Watching the two act made Caroline's stomach queasy with uneasiness so in attempt to calm her nerves, she reached for the blood placed in front of her and took a sip of it – blood always seems to help her in situations like this so why wouldn't it this time right? Well, the moment the liquid enters her mouth, Caroline instantly recognize what type of blood it was. Its B positive, which just so happens to be her favourite type of blood. At that moment, she couldn't help but to wonder if it's simply a coincidence or Klaus had specified the blood to her liking.

Unintentionally, Caroline's eyes caught Klaus' – who was now looking at her with a storm of emotions in those blue orbs of his – and almost instantly, she put the glass down, having her question earlier answered.

Of course Klaus would prepare her favourite blood type for her! How he even know such thing at the first place is beyond her. Knowing that he knows and cares enough to had it prepare for her though, made her felt an immense amount of guilt. It annoys her though, the guilt she's feeling. It's not like she had pelan on marrying his brother all along nor did she did it just to piss him off. Caroline had no idea how all of this was happening and she sure as hell does not deserve to feel guilty about it. And who was Klaus to be upset with her anyway? He made his choice when he slept with Hayley, knocked her up and left Mystic Falls.

Caroline just let out a deep sigh and reached for the wine this time, wishing to God they had something a little stronger, like a whole tub of tequila she could drown herself in it.

"Well, are you and Elijah going to explain how you ended up being my sister-in-law, Caroline?" Rebekah asked, cutting off the silence and went straight to the question that's been hanging in the air since they all gathered in the dining room.

Caroline was about to open her mouth when Elijah took her hand, signaling to her that he's going to handle it.

"I have told you earlier, sister, neither one of us remember how it happened. We woke up one morning and our memories of the last three months were gone." The older Mikaelson explained calmly before turning to the girl that his siblings had claimed to be their long lost, dead big sister. "Now will someone care to explain to me how is it possible for our older sister to came back to life when she was supposed to be dead before any of us were born, if I may add?"

Before anyone can answer Elijah, Klaus swiftly cut in. "I'm more interested in discussing about your predicament, _brother_." The way he spit the word made both Elijah and Caroline flinched. "Surely you have seek the witches' help in figuring out who did this to you." Klaus knows Elijah, they had been brothers for a thousand years, and he knows enough to know that Elijah must've reached out for a witch as soon as he wakes up next to Caroline. His honorable big brother does not spend his time dwell on things, he sprung into action immediately. It's exactly why Elijah is the most useful of all the Originals, even himself if he dare to admit aloud, which he does not.

"I have indeed," Elijah nodded, taking his time swirling the wine in his free hand before continuing. "Those who did this to us are using dark magic beyond the powers of Spirit and nature. The same magic used to make Silas an immortal which also conveniently, the same one mother used to make us what we are today."

"How peculiar." Klaus said, looking very annoyed. Of course this is his mother's doing! As if she hadn't come up with enough ways to torture him already, now she had to drag Caroline into whatever sick and twisted game this is. Oh, he is so going to take his pleasure in killing his mother this time.

"Very peculiar indeed." Elijah said, sharing Klaus' annoyance.

"So you think this might be your mother's work?" Hayley spoke, for the first time that night. It was then that Elijah finally look her way.

It would be a lie if Elijah said that looking at her didn't bring out any pent-up emotions he has for her. Their love was complicated at best and though there was so many angst and passion that run between the two of them, it was also another reminder of how truly disastrous his love life had been. And it hurts to even admit that because deep down, he still felt so much for the mother of his niece but at the same time, that longing he felt whenever he looked at her is no longer presence in his heart. Looking at Hayley now felt as if you're looking at an old lover of yours, it stirs some emotions but the fire was simply gone.

"Highly probable." Elijah said after snapping himself out of his mussing. "Speaking of which, where is our dear old mother? I would like to very much, converse with her."

"Gone. She disappear into the thin air around the same time you were gone." Rebekah answered.

"Well, isn't that interesting." Caroline said flatly while rising the wine glass to her lips.

Elijah let out a grim smile. "What of Finn and Kol?" If he can't get an answer from his mother, he would do so from his brothers.

A pained expression graces Rebekah's face at the mention of a certain brother of theirs who is once again, no longer in the land of the living with them. "Kol's dead."

Elijah's body went frigid and he squeezed Caroline's hand tighter. "What?"

"Finn put a curse on him after mother disappeared." The sorrow in Rebekah's voice left the whole room quiet for a while before Elijah speak once again. "And where is Finn?" Because he certainly would love to inflict pain onto his pathetic older brother.

"Trapped, inside of Freya's necklace." Klaus gestured towards the newest member of the Mikaelson.

"Once again, anyone care to explain how our older sister managed to sprung back to life?" He has yet to get an answer to that question and Elijah is adamant to get to the bottom of it.

Freya smiled slightly at Elijah's demeanor. She could clearly see his distrust and skepticism, which was understandable considering everything that has happened but she had gone through hell just to be reunited with her family and if she had to spend decades convincing them about her identity, then so be it. "How about I show you and your wife?"

Elijah narrowed his eyes in suspicion towards Freya and seemed to move closer towards Caroline as if trying to protect her from harm. The act didn't go unnoticed and a slight crack of Klaus' glass can be heard throughout the room.

Freya raised her hands up in the air to show that she meant no harm to Caroline or any of them. Well… maybe she secretly want to drive a stake through Niklaus' heart but that's because he's been a complete whiny, obnoxious and angry little jerk.

"I promise, brother, I mean you nor Caroline, no harm. I simply wish to show you the story of my life because it is a long one and I do not think words can explain it all."

Caroline turned to Elijah and put a hand on top of his hand, the one that was still holding tightly onto hers, as a sign that she agrees with Freya's suggestion.

"Very well," Elijah nodded after a few seconds of debating it in his head. He is not exactly thrill to have someone prod into his mind – he is even less thrill about someone prodding into Caroline's – and considering the circumstances, he had every right to be weary. He does, however, need an answer – he had enough unanswered questions in his head already – and since the fastest way for him to get it is for Freya to enter his mind and show it to him, he had no choice but to let Freya enter his mind and show it all to him.

The moment they closed their eyes, both Caroline and Elijah saw flashes of Freya's long, long life. Her childhood, how Dahlia destroyed it by taking her from Esther and Esther letting her, how her life with Dahlia was, how she fell in love, got pregnant and tried to kill herself after her boyfriend died but ended up only killing her son because Dahlia had made them somewhat immortal and everything else that happened from there onwards. It was quite overwhelming to see these images flashes inside of their head but it paint a clear picture of what had happened to Freya.

Elijah and Caroline opened their eyes once the images had stopped. "I'm so sorry." The girl said, already sympathizing with everything that Freya had to go through. Her brother, however, remained skeptical of her. Freya expected that already. She knew that if she want to convince him, she'd have to dig deeper than that and find the bond that link them as family.

"Elijah, when you were in Esther's womb, she would ask me to sing to you. I would feel her belly as I did," Freya chuckled to herself as she remembered the memory that seemed so far away and yet it felt as if it had happened yesterday, "how you would kick! She would say as if it was Thor himself had raised his hammer and-"

"Summoned thunder and lightning." Elijah finishes for her. A small smile playing on his lips. "Mother rarely mentioned you but when she did she would say how enchanted you were by the prospect of my birth."

Freya nodded. "I've always wanted more brothers and sisters. Now after a thousand years, I have found my family again and I am not planning on losing any of you, to Dahlia or Esther. If this is her doing, I can try to intercept the spell she had put inside your head and maybe give you back what she had stolen from you."

Caroline looked at Elijah. "It wouldn't hurt to try." She offered. As of right now, they really have no options left and right now, Freya is the best bet they have.

"Very well." Elijah agreed.

"You can use me." Caroline volunteered.

"No!" A firm argument came from both Elijah and Klaus in an instance. They may disagree in a lot of things but it seems that when it comes to Caroline's well being, they are well like-minded.

Caroline rolled her eyes at Klaus' reaction – of course he would think that he has a say in this – before looking intently into Elijah's eyes. "You've let yourself be used before, now let me do my part. We're in this together aren't we?"

"Indeed we are but-"Caroline cut Elijah out by squeezing his hand. "If you don't trust Freya, at least trust me and let me decide on my own what I do or do not do to contribute to our really bizarre and complicated relationship."

In the end the Original vampire can only let out a heavy sigh and nodded. Caroline is anything if not persistent, Elijah have noticed. If she had set her mind up to do something, there's nothing nor he or anyone else can do or say to make her change her decision. He both love and dread that particular characteristic of hers.

"You cannot possibly agree to this ludicrous idea, Elijah! Who's to say that this isn't Freya's doing all along and she is trying to cash in on it to gain our trust?"

"For heaven's sake, Niklaus! I wasn't even awake yet when Elijah went missing, moreover staging all of this." Freya groaned.

"She's right, Nik. And Freya's been nothing but helpful to us. What more do you want her to do before you trust her?" Rebekah stood up for her sister. She'd always wanted a sister and now that she has one, she will be damn before she let Niklaus ruin it for her.

Klaus let out a low growl and looked pointedly at Caroline. "You are not doing it."

"Excuse me?" For the first time since she arrived in town, Caroline stared boldly at Klaus. "Who are you to tell me what I can or cannot do?" She challenged him without a beat. "You have no say in anything that I do, Klaus. You never had a right to so why don't you just continue your paranoia that everyone here is against you and let me do what I think is right for me?"

Marcel watched as the two glared at each other with so much intensity, he was surprise there aren't any lasers shooting out of their eyes. Like, he knew this dinner was going to be interesting but he never thought it would be wildly entertaining too. His interest in Caroline only grew by each second and he'd come to admire the young vampire for standing up against Klaus like that. He'd known his sire for a long time but never once did he ever saw someone talked to him like that and live to tell the tale. He daggered even Rebekah and Elijah – his favourite siblings – if they so much as annoy him but here's Caroline, openly defying him and trying his patience and yet he can't even lift a hand on her. Kudos to Elijah for choosing the right woman to join his lunatic family.

After a long stretch of silence filled with anger radiating from both Klaus and Caroline, the hybrid finally surrendered. "Fine! Have it your way, love."

Freya took that as a sign of agreement and made her way behind Caroline all the while Elijah kept his firm hold onto Caroline's hand, giving her all the support she needed. Caroline simply smile and give him a reassuring smile as Freya put two fingers on each side of her temples.

"I do have to warn you that this might get uncomfortable for you," Freya said to Caroline, giving her a chance to back out if she wants to.

The girl surprises Freya when she nodded firmly. She could see the determination decorating Caroline's delicate face and it impresses her. "Alright. Let's do this."

Freya closed her eyes and focused. She started chanting and let the magic flowed through her body and straight to her finger tips, sending tingling sensation through Caroline's temples before she felt the full burst of the oldest Mikaelson's magic. It was unpleasant but it did not hurt, it was simply like a weird sensation of having something sticky on your skin but it did not stayed that way for long. The moment Freya's magic got a hold of the magic's blocking Caroline's memory, a wave of pain so bad surged through her and caused her to scream in agony. Through the layers of pain were flashes, flashes of Elijah and her that she could not decipher or grasp because the pain was blinding. If Caroline didn't know any better, she would've thought her head was going to explode.

Just like how it came, the pain suddenly stopped and Caroline was left with a ringing in her ears and a sting in her eyes. She had to take a while to get a grip of herself. When she opened her eyes, Elijah was there, kneeling in front of her, one hand caressing her cheek and the other wiping her nose with a handkerchief. Apparently her nose was bleeding.

"Can you hear me, Caroline?" His voice soothe the after math of whatever had just happened to her.

Caroline can simply nod, not having any energy for anything more.

Relief flood through Elijah. If anything, anything at all had happened to her, Elijah doesn't know what he will do. Caroline had become an important person in his life in a short matter of time and the thought of her hurting feels like it can physically hurt him too.

"I am truly sorry, Caroline but the magic in your head, it is too powerful. To break it, I need to channel something equally as powerful and it has to be done delicately. One wrong move and you'll be dead." Freya explained.

"Then we shall not try it again on you," Elijah firmly announced.

"But-" Caroline tried to argue but Elijah cut her off. "No. I will not put you in such danger, Caroline. I will respect all of your decisions regarding what you can or cannot do but not when it comes to your safety."

Caroline let out a deep sigh. She knows that there's no use in arguing about it with Elijah right now. "Fine."

Satisfied with Caroline's compliance, Elijah turned to face the rest of his family. "I think we've had enough excitement for one day. How about we simply finish this dinner and be on our way?"

A resounding agreement come when all of them continue digging into the food and Elijah and Freya went back to their seat. The dinner continue with a few back and forth between Klaus and Elijah but other than that, it remain rather uneventful afterwards which Caroline was eternally grateful for because after feeling like her head was going to burst into tiny million pieces, an uneventful dinner was exactly what she needed.

* * *

 **A/N** : Next chapter, a flash of memory, Bonnie, jealousy and more angst.


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